Clouded By Instinct
by SomniumArtifex
Summary: Bennett is alone. Raised by a secretive mother that preached the value of a low profile, she had no friends when the only family she had forced her away from her home. Can she find herself a place in La Push or will her natural disdain for wolves send her away from the one man who has ever loved her? Rated M for language and possible future lemons. *Title subject to change*
1. Tree Hugger

Author's Note:  
I know that I should be focusing my attention on my two other unfinished stories but I couldn't help me. I really want to get this story started so I hope you enjoy.

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The ground was hard below my soft, furry feet. The pads of my paws stung as the contacted the icy soil and it took all my resilience not to recoil from it. I wondered how the local animals did it, how they could tolerate the feeling of their skin freezing below them. It didn't help me that I had no idea where I was, maybe if I were in the area that I grew up in then I wouldn't feel as overwhelmed with the cold as I was.

It wasn't like I'd never experienced cold before, but somehow it felt so much worse here. Almost like the land and weather here actually disliked me and had a vendetta against me. It was stupid to think that the inanimate ground and the lifeless weather had consciousness but I couldn't help it.

I was feeling more than a little insecure at the moment, as I had just been 'turned out' by my mother. My fraternal brother had been permitted to stay but not me; no, mum had said that I was too old to live at home and that I needed to make my own way in life. It was painful to be turned away by your own mother, to know that the woman who gave you life no longer cared about your survival. I also felt a little cheated by the fact that she was happy to keep my brother around; I knew that girls developed faster than boys but it still felt quite rough.

A twig snapped and I knew that it wasn't something that I had done. My head whipped around to face the direction that the noise had come from; ears pricked to catch the slightest sound. Whatever had made that noise was large and I had to be careful of who I ran into, I was vulnerable to large predators and knew better than to be caught off guard by one. I would probably be able to fight off a cougar or a lone wolf but anything larger than that was a major threat.

Whoever had broken that twig was not worried about being spotted because they were making a hell of a commotion in their travels. I heard every step they took as they made no effort to hide themselves. A bird darted out from the trees, frightened by the presence of this unknown individual, and it was soon followed by a rabbit and then a small deer. It was a predator of some sort and knowing my luck it was an angry black bear, ready to kill anything that didn't get out of its way.

I dashed to the nearest tree and quickly climbed well out of reach. It was in times like this that I was thankful for my heritage as I had heard many stories of my kind being attacked and even killed when they were unable to get away from another, larger predator. My body was designed to scale trees, even though I spent most of my time on the forest floor; I was so dextrous that I could climb head first down tree trunks without a worry and hang easily from the underside of branches by just my hind feet.

As the noises got closer I noticed that they weren't coming from one individual but from at least two. My breathing deepened as my nerves grew, I hoped that whatever they were they couldn't climb. That was when I realised that bears could and often did climb trees. I craned my neck to find a way out of the tree. The only things that I could find were other trees.

I coiled my powerful hind legs and leapt away from the noises that I was hearing. I sprung towards the closest tree, landing with a hard thump that forced the air from my lungs. I ignored my aching chest as I scurried further up the tree and launched myself at the next tree. After my fourth successful jump I decided that they would not be able to trace my scent without executing those exact jumps themselves and I started to calm down a little.

To be on the safe side I decided to climb as high as the bough of my current tree would allow. I wanted to keep an eye on the creatures that had scared me but at the same time I didn't want them spotting me. The last thing I needed was to have a large predator following me and waiting for me to make a mistake.

From my vantage point I was able to watch them as they stumbled upon my trail. They were not what I had expected. They weren't bears or cougars or wolves; well, not real wolves. They looked like wolves and they sounded like wolves but they had to be at least twice the size of normal wolves, and normal wolves were already big enough as far as I was concerned.

The first that I saw was a dark silver beast and I got a feeling that he was the most dangerous of the three, simply by how he held himself. The second one was reddish-brown and smaller than the first, while the third was ashy-brown and seemed to be thicker set than the other two. They froze as they reached the spot where I first heard them and the large sliver wolf pulled back his lips to reveal dangerous looking teeth; although I was sure that my canines were longer.

My scent seemed to confuse them and to begin with they started following it in the wrong direction. All I could hear from them was a variety of panicked growls as they desperately tried to figure out who I was and where I'd gone. After a few flustered minutes the three overgrown wolves were joined by two more.

One was sleek and brown, and about the same size as the silver wolf. He was the first of the two late comers to arrive and his eyes flew upwards almost the second that he arrived. I shrunk back into the dappled shadows, even though I was sure that he wouldn't be able to pick me out from this distance. Sure enough his eyes seemed to fly over me without a second thought.

The final wolf was beyond massive and his size was exaggerated by the thick, black fur that engulfed his already huge body. The sight of him made me shiver and I knew that I could not let him see me. A wolf that size would tear me to pieces without breaking a sweat. This wolf followed the actions of his brown friend and moved his attention from my trail to the tree tops.

I'd hoped that after a little while they would just give up on the trail; that they'd figure I was long gone amongst the trees by now and there was no point wasting their time trying to follow me. But it became clear after the first five minutes that these were not natural wolves, because they refused to give up on the mysterious scent that they had found.

They seemed to be waiting for someone, or something, and with every minute that passed I become more and more anxious. Eventually one of them would take a long hard look at the tree tops and it would be inevitable that they would find me. The worst bit was that I couldn't move anywhere. They were predators, so their eyes were designed to spot movement; if I tried to get to another tree then they would definitely see me and then I would be absolutely screwed.

I almost fell out of the tree when one of the wolves started to tremble and reared on to its hind legs before disappearing. He was replaced by a stark naked twenty-something man, who bent over to retrieve something from the ground and in doing so gave me a very good view of his taught arse. It was then that I noticed he had a pair of shorts tied around his ankle, as did all of his other friends. They were all Shifters.

This was as overwhelming as the cold of the forest floor. I'd never met a Shifter that could take on the form of a wolf. I had only ever met one confirmed Shifter before and that was my mother, she always told me that my father was a Shifter as well and that my brother would likely be one too, but she'd never said anything about there being others out there and I certainly wouldn't have expected any this close to where I was born and raised.

My mother lived in Campbell River on Vancouver Island, towards the edge of the township so that her less than normal habits wouldn't be too obvious. She lived in fear of people finding out what she was and had assumed that my becoming a Shifter would only draw more attention to our family, so she sent me away. I knew that she told everyone that I'd run away with some fictional man because I'd seen the news report about my disappearance; I still wasn't sure whether I should be insulted or not.

And after years of not being allowed to tell anyone anything because of what we were, I find out that a mere 240 miles away, just over the Canadian-American border, were five men who could do exactly what we could only they were wolves. Something told me that I might want to go back and tell my mother about these men but something else told me that I would not get a warm welcoming if I tried.

I thought back to that last time I'd seen my mother, the last time that I'd spoken to her. For weeks she'd been unusually impatient with me, she'd go from being the jovial mother that I'd always known to a scarily loud and aggressive woman that was more a stranger than a family member. On the last day she had screamed at me for four straight hours, stopping only when she found herself having to leave the room to stop herself from hitting me. I had no idea what I'd done but she didn't seem to care. Eventually she lost it; she pushed me out of the house and into the cover of Elk Falls Provincial Park. Once out of sight of the humans that mum liked to surround herself with, she phased and I was forced to phase myself so that I could defend myself against her.

It was like seeing me as my animal self had triggered something in her and she attacked me. It wasn't an 'I want to kill' attack but rather a 'Piss off before I do something we both regret' kind of attack. She snapped and spat and slashed at me, forcing me to retreat as she advanced. There was nothing I could do, it was either run for my life or try to talk sense into my irate mother.

No, she would as soon as kill me as look at me if I tried to go back. She'd just have to live without knowing the truth because I would not risk my life for her, not for a woman who would so quickly turn away her only daughter.

I truly started to panic when the Shifter that was in human form walked up to the tree that I had originally ascended and started to climb. He was nowhere near as fast or efficient as I was but he didn't have any real problems scaling the large fir tree. I glanced up above me to see if I could push the tree any further but I knew that it wasn't a good idea, if the tree started to move then it would immediately draw attention to me.

"I can't see anything, the canopy is too thick." The man in the tree yelled down at his friends.

"Can you smell it still though?"

I jumped a little and looked back down at the forest floor. Two more wolves had disappeared, the ashy-brown one and the jet black one, to be replaced by two tall men. One was decidedly older than the other but they were both very intimidating to look at. It looked like they could take me down in either form.

The man in the fir tree yelled back to them, "Yeah, whatever it was came up to this point and then seems to have disappeared."

"What do you mean disappeared?" it was the same guy that had called out before and I noticed that he was the older and taller one.

The man in the tree climbed up a little higher, "I mean, it reached here but didn't go any higher. I don't know where it went but it's not in the tree anymore."

"Can you see anything at all?"

"Nothing. Whatever it was is gone. I say we give Jake a heads up and just wait to see what happens." The man in the tree started to descend again, going very slowly and carefully as he seemed to be afraid of slipping.

The third man tapped the taller, older man on the shoulder and then mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear, "Maybe the Cullens could help."

Everyone seemed to freeze for a second at the mention of these Cullens and that made my stomach turn. I was already scared of these wolf-men and they were scared of the Cullens. That was not good for me. Whoever these Cullens were, I had to get away before they got here.

"No. If it goes off of the reservation then they can have their shot at it but I don't want them here. We'll tell Jake but as it stands, I'm not afraid of whatever it is. We'll sort it out ourselves." The tallest man said just as the guy that had scaled the tree reached the ground.

The three men turned to the west as started back off through the trees, mumbling about patrols and mysterious creatures. The last two remaining wolves headed south but they kept looking over their shoulder as they went, clearly still questioning what I was. I waited until I couldn't hear them anymore and started down the tree, head first.

I couldn't help but note how cold the ground was in comparison to the ambivalent temperature of the tree bough. I had been heading south when I heard those wolves coming but I was not going to tempt fate by continuing in that direction; and for the same reason I couldn't head west. It would be pointless of me to head north because that was where I was trying to get away from.

The only option left to me was east. So I turned back in the direction of the town that I had actually been trying to avoid. I didn't want to get too close to any large settlements, my mother's paranoia had rubbed off on me over the last eighteen years. My plan now was the head away from the wolves but before I reached the town I would aim myself south and try to squeeze between the wolf territory and the settlement.

I was about two hundred metres from where the wolves had unknowingly chased me up a tree when I smelt the familiar pungent smell of vampires. In my head I put two and two together and prayed that I had reached four. I guessed that these were likely what had scared the wolves, these vampires were the Cullens.

A bronze haired bloodsucker stepped out from behind a tree. For a second he didn't seem to notice me, but a cat my size in North America was rather conspicuous. It didn't take long for him to spot me and he seemed as confused by the sight of me as the wolves had been at my scent. It definitely didn't surprise me though.

I was four foot tall at the shoulders when in my feline form and that was the smallest of my measurements. From nose to tail tip, I was almost thirteen feet long, although six foot of that was my tail. Weighing in at close to six hundred pound, it was not a hopeless situation, but I didn't really want to start anything. No, my best option was to try to scare away the vampire.

A loud hiss tore from my throat, getting louder as I opened my jaws to show off my impressive four and a half inch canines. My animal form was a giant Sunda Clouded Leopard which, I was proud to say, was well known for having the largest canines of all the living feline species. This was my best weapon and it was used more commonly as a threat than anything else.

Unfortunately, the threat didn't work and the vampire turned toward me. I wasn't going to push the matter, I didn't care if he thought I was a coward. I'd rather live a thousand years as a coward then to be a hero and die within the hour. The vampire took chase and I bolted back towards where I'd seen the wolves. I'd rather face them than the vampire and seeing how the wolves seemed to hate these Cullens, I got a feeling that they would be more concerned with this vamp being on their territory than me.

* * *

Author's Note:  
So, what do you think?


	2. Trapped

The vampire didn't chase me for long. After a few seconds the sound of his footfalls stopped and I turned around to see him frozen in the middle of the forest. He seemed to teeter on the spot, as if he were standing on the very edge of a sheer cliff. There was a strange look on his cold, glittering face, he was confused, annoyed and yet intrigued.

I stood and watched him; he seemed to be too frightened to move further. A scared vampire was not something that I was used to. I'd met a few vampires in my time but they didn't show any fear, at least not until the last second of their disgusting existence. Vampires were arrogant creatures, they were almost always far too confident in their own strength and cared only for themselves.

"I'm not arrogant." the bronze haired vampire chimed.

My heart skipped a few beats as I tried to figure out how he could have possibly known that was what I'd thought. Mind-reading was not possible; it was a parlour trick used by deceptive humans to fool the dim-witted into handing over their hard earned cash. I wondered if maybe he were one of those people who were really good at picking up people's facial movements and body language, but he would have to be a genius to be able to decipher my feline face.

He smiled at me, "I can read your mind. Some vampires have special abilities that mean we can do things that no one else can." He smiled wider and I couldn't help but notice that his eyes were not red or black as all other vampires eyes were, but rather they were golden, almost the same colour as my mother's. The bronze haired vampire laughed softly, "My eyes are like this because I don't drink human blood."

A vampire that didn't drink blood? I found that hard to believe. Without blood his eyes would be as black as an abyss and his mental state would match. He'd be unable to stop himself from latching onto the nearest living thing and draining it of every drop of precious crimson fluid. My life experiences told me that this vampire was lying.

"I'm not lying. I drink the blood of animals, my whole family does. We like humans and we don't want to hurt them." the vampire's smile dropped and I got the feeling that he was starting to lose his composure.

I pulled my lips back quickly and snorted at him. He was definitely full of shit and I wasn't going to be suckered into his web of deceit. We were natural born enemies, well at least I was naturally born, and I wasn't going to be his next chew toy. My mother had taught me better than that.

My right ear flicked around to pick up a sound coming from the south. It was the sound of heavy foot falls that crunched frozen leaves and threw debris around the forest floor. There were wolves heading back this way and in my head I smirked at the leech.

"Don't. Please, stay." the vampire yelled at me but I didn't react, "They won't hurt you. The Quileutes are good people."

I turned and dashed to the nearest tree, scaling it quickly and then following my earlier trick to move several trees over and out of sight. Sure, it gave away my trick to the vampire but I had a strong feeling that he would have a hard time convincing these wolves to turn their attention away from him.

Sure enough the silver and red-brown wolf burst onto the scene and slid to an aggressive stop in front of the bewildered vampire. It was clear that he was annoyed at being disturbed and I, slightly carelessly, settled back into the fork of the branch that I had stopped at.

This part of the tree was heavily shaded, which was perfect for my dark coat, and my view of the vampire and wolves was somewhat obscured by a few leaves that were clustered in the middle of my vision. But it wasn't too bad; I could still see everything in a decent amount of detail.

"It's up there!" the vampire growled as he thrust his hand in my direction. I smirked and laughed, in my head, at his futile efforts and it only seemed to annoy the vampire, "Pride comes before the fall." He roared at me.

One of the wolves snapped at the vampire, while the red-brown wolf pointed his nose to the sky and let out a low howl. I could feel the vibration in my bones and it made me shiver. The sound of normal wolves communicating had always put me on edge, but knowing exactly how large these wolves were made everything so much worse.

"I told you they won't hurt you. They're Shifters too and they don't hurt people. Their job is to protect people." the vampire was starting to sound desperate.

I wasn't sure what he was trying to pull off but I didn't really care. All I wanted was for the disgusting bloodsucker to step over the boundary line and give the wolves a reason to tear him limb from limb. It would make my day if killing this vamp put the wolves into a frenzy and they turned around slaughtered the rest of his 'family'. I hated the idea that he had the nerve to claim he had 'family', vampires were monsters but they weren't related to one another.

"You idiots, it's right next to you. I understand that you don't like me but what can I possibly gain from lying to you?" The vampire was getting angrier by the second and I could barely contain my mirth, "It's a leopard of some sort. I've never seen anything like it before. It's got these massive greyish coloured spots with black outlines. I swear to you, if you turn to that tree there and look up, you'll see it. It's right there."

"You are not welcome on this land." someone yelled from the west and I turned to look at the approaching men. I recognised that the man who had just spoken was the one that had seemed to be in control before.

The vampire sighed, "I'm not on your land, Sam. I found the thing that you smelt before, I'm sure you can smell it again now."

"Then where is it?" Sam growled as he stopped right in front of the vampire.

The bronze haired vampire pointed towards my tree, "In that tree."

Sam watched the vampire closely for a few seconds before flicking his wrist and directing one of the other men to check out the tree. I took a deep breath and then froze, knowing that the more I moved the more likely it was that I'd be seen. It was the man who had scaled the other tree that came to inspect this one. I prayed that he wouldn't try to climb this one too.

While the one man inspected the tree, Sam continued to interrogate the vampire, "And what was it?"

The vampire let out a long, exasperated sigh, "A leopard. Not one that I've ever seen before but it was a cat with spots."

"A cat with spots? The scent was of something a little more substantial than a family pet." Sam growled as the man at the foot of the tree started to circle it.

"It was a Shifter, as surely as you are. He or she is about the size of a tiger, but their teeth... I wouldn't want to be bit by teeth half that size."

The man that was inspecting my tree stepped away and back towards his pack, "There's nothing up there."

I loved how that sounded and I moved my head to stare into the bizarre eyes of the vampire. This was probably one of the best things about being who I was; when I didn't want to be seen then I would not be seen. My mother had the same gift, I had lost her more than once when she had decided that she needed time alone; not that I blamed her, my brother and I were quite a handful.

"There fucking is!" he roared, "She, it's a she, and she has an ability, like Jared's sight. I think it's related to her species because her mother could do it too. Go have another look, Jared. She's in that tree. I can see her from here."

I took it that the man who had been looking for me in the tree was Jared and he didn't look impressed to be getting ordered around by a vampire. I had to agree with Jared's reaction, if a vampire ever told me to do something it would be hard for me to push down the desire to bite it.

"You're trying to tell us that there's a tiger hiding in that tree, and it can somehow hide from Jared's eyes. Are you fucking stupid, Cullen?" Sam growled. I was right, the Cullens were vampires.

Again the vampire sighed heavily, "Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you."

Something took a hold of me, something foolish. But the idea was too tempting for me to ignore. I noticed that the tree next to the one I was in had a much larger bough and I would easily be able to hide my whole body from the wolves behind that bough. All I had to do was aim myself right and commit to the action. Once I moved there was no going back.

I slowly got to my feet and made my way to the end of my branch, with a simple but very careful spring, I jumped from the thick branch of one tree to a shorter branch of the neighbouring tree. My paws were padded so perfectly that I didn't make a single sound as I moved around the branches, the only noise made was the sound of the leaves rustling at the end of the vibrating branches, and such noises were so frequent in a forest that the wolves didn't even notice them.

"There! She just moved. Turn around and you will see her."

With my body hidden behind the bough of the tree, I couldn't see the wolves or the vampire, but that also meant that they couldn't see me. My tail was long and in situations like this it could be a dead giveaway, something as long and thick as my tail was hard to confuse with anything other than a large tail. I let it fall down the back of the bough, and then carefully manipulated the fluffy tip of my tail into the fork of a thin branch. They would all be able to see my tail tip but it would be easily confused with a fluffy grey tabby cat's rear end.

My tail tip was settled into the tree and into the blatant view of the wolves. This was either going to convince them that this vampire was full of shit or it would intrigue them enough that they would come looking. I was putting my money on them assuming that the vampire was bullshitting them.

I meowed. Yes, I meowed. Four foot tall, thirteen feet long and meowing like a domestic cat. Unlike lions and tigers, clouded leopards didn't roar. It wasn't in our nature or our physiology. I could make a range of noises; growling, hissing, moaning, meowing and snorting. And it was times like these that I didn't mind not being able to roar. Roaring was only useful in drawing attention to yourself; the sounds I could make meant that I could convince people that I wasn't here. I'd made many people believe that I was nothing more than a fluffy cat hiding in a tree.

"A leopard, huh?" a third man growled and I smiled to myself.

The vampire hissed at the wolves, his anger just starting to boil over, "She's fucking with you. That's her tail."

"Enough!" Sam bellowed, "Jared looked in the tree you said she was in and she wasn't there. Now you're saying that the cat that just meowed at us is actually a tiger-sized leopard's tail. I don't care. If it's a Shifter than we will handle it when we catch up with it, until then... back off."

I meowed softly, to try to convince them that I was a cat that wasn't actually listening to them, and pulled my tail out of view. While hidden behind the bough I repositioned myself to keep climbing the tree. It was taller than the other tree I was in so I knew that it would support my weight up higher.

"You have to be able to hear that!" the bloodsucker yelled and I froze, I'd never thought of whether or not people could hear me climb.

Sam grumbled, "It's a forest, Edward. Those sounded are normal. Giant weird looking leopards are not."

"I'm telling you that there is a feline Shifter on your territory and I could help bring her out of the trees, if you'd just let me-"

"Shut up, Cullen!" the pack's clear leader roared, "You are never coming onto this land, mysterious Shifter or not. But you can tell Jake about it and if it crosses this border then it's all yours to do whatever you want with."

Edward Cullen growled low in his throat, "Well, you can guarantee that I'll be holding you to that. We'll start our own patrols to make sure she doesn't come off your land." I heard him move and knew that he was going to try to talk to me, "I don't know who you are, or why you're here but if you don't watch yourself you will get hurt."

He was threatening me and I wasn't sure whether I was alright with that. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to defend myself from his threat. If I made a noise then the wolves may realise that the 'cat' understood the vampire and come to investigate. And I had no way of knowing whether he was directing their sights towards me, so I couldn't show myself to him. I resigned myself to silently tolerating his threat.

"I'll remind you, Cullen, that if you harm a human then you break the treaty and we will not hesitate in defending our people from you as we do from other vampires." Sam warned and I had to smile at that.

I heard the vampire turn and sprint away. The wolves seemed to jostle around wordlessly for a few minutes before they split up. The three men moved to the tree that I'd sheltered in for most of the altercation. They circled the tree, their eyes trained to the trees height.

"I'm telling you, there was nothing up there. Just bark and leaves." Jared grumbled as he stepped away from the tree.

Sam seemed to accept his pack mate's assertion, "What about that tree?"

Jared sighed, "If there was nothing in this tree then there won't be anything in that one."

Regardless, he turned his gaze to the tree that I now occupied. His eyes carefully ran up and down the height of the tree, I held my breath as they reached my tail. But he didn't seem to notice anything out of the norm and kept looking for... well, me. I watched Jared walk closer to the tree and as he looked up his eyes caught mine. He stared at me for a few moments and my heart felt as though it had stopped; until his eyes continued on searching and I knew that somehow he hadn't registered my presence.

"Anything?" the third man asked as he stepped up next to Jared.

Jared shook his head slowly, "No." He sounded disappointed as he turned away and the three men walked off.

I had certainly had my fair share of Shifters for one day but I didn't know where to go from here. First thing first, I decided to get out of the tree. By the time I reached the ground I wished that I'd never decided to come this way. There were now vamps out there that were waiting for me to leave wolf territory.

I had nowhere to go.

Author's Note:

Seriously, look up video of Clouded Leopards and listen to them meow, it's quite bizarre.


	3. HELP

I stood on a low tree branch, staring down the tallest of the vampires. He'd found me drinking from the river that dissected the wolves' territory, but I'd been careful to learn the scent of the wolf pack so that I knew where their territory ended.

It had been three days since the bronze haired vampire trapped me in wolf territory. He had not been lying when he said that they would stop me from leaving. Every time I tried they were there, waiting for me to cross the invisible line so they could get to me. They claimed that they didn't want to hurt me but they were vampires, I couldn't trust a word that came from their mouths.

And since they weren't letting me leave, I was intent on taking up as much of their time as possible. Which was harder than it sounded seeing as vampires didn't need to sleep, and I most certainly did. But I was giving them a run for their money and the longer I had them pushing against the wolf's border the hotter the situation was becoming. With every incident between the bloodsuckers and the Shifters, tensions frayed more and I got a feeling that I was days away from the total destruction of this 'treaty' that they all argued about.

The vampires had stopped trying to convince the Shifters of what I was, although the wolves knew that I was a Shifter too. It was not worth the hassle because the wolves did not want to know the vampires, something that I fully understood. If this were my land then I would not tolerate them standing on my border and yelling at me.

"Here... kitty, kitty, kitty." the black haired vampire crooned as he clicked his fingers together.

I didn't like this one. I'd faced him once before and every time I saw him he spent his time mocking me. Talking to me like I was some sort of overgrown house pet or telling me that I wasn't as smart as the wolves. He was just trying to get a rise out of me and it was working. I'd take those sorts of things from a Shifter but not a vamp.

He stepped into a shallow stretch of water that leaked from the main river to pool in a muddy puddle. Again he seemed to register how close he was to the border and inched himself as close to me as the treaty would allow, "Oh, Pumpkin Pie... why won't you come down to play?"

The Cullens had named me Pumpkin Pie because of the colour of my coat and the fact that I refused to tell the mind reader my name. Mum had used my name sparingly as I was growing up and it wasn't uncommon for me to genuinely forget my own name, it was a result of my mother distrusting everyone but don't ask me the logic behind it. Still, I hated Pumpkin Pie and they all knew it, which was why this dark haired vampire loved to use it so much.

I raised my lips as a silent threat. Watching him fight with the urge to cross the scent-line and break the treaty was enough of a reward without the need to draw any extra attention to myself. No matter how many times I witnessed an altercation between the wolves and the vamps, it never lost its appeal.

The large vampire looked back over his shoulder and smiled, "Finally. Talk about taking their damn time, I mean, at least you are _reliably_ annoying."

That was when I heard it, the sound of many running feet. There were Shifters racing towards us, meaning that I would have to cut my interaction with the vampire short. It was annoying that they were showing up so quickly but if it meant that I got to see a fight then I would stomach the premature arrival. I was surprised to find that the sound was coming from the Cullen's side of the border though because it never had before.

"If you're trying to hide from Shifters than you may want to run, these guys aren't bound by the treaty." the vampire sneered and for reasons that I didn't quite understand, I trusted him.

The pounding feet got closer and the hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle. I didn't want to stick around to be caught out by more Shifters, so I turned tail and ran. Well, more climbed but it had the same effect. The tree was starting to sway under my weight by the time the wolves reached the vampire; I could hear the clack of their jaws as they acted on their excitement.

This was not good for me because their excitement would likely lead to them acting before thinking. In which case, even if they were against harming humans, I would be a chew toy before they had time to register what I actually was. I could see them below me, jumping up at the bough of the tree; I assumed they were trying to get a better look at me, because I couldn't think of anything else that jumping would achieve.

I coiled my muscles and sprung away from the tree, again landing heavily on the next tree. I wasn't very graceful at landing and even from the distance they were at, the wolves would have been able to see how rough the landing was. They growled at me as they ran to surround the tree I was now in. Sure enough, they crossed the border and they had no fear in doing so.

This was very bad news for me. I scrambled higher up the tree and around the side a little, and then launched myself at the next tree. Again and again and again. But the wolves kept up with me every step of the way and, as I started to lose energy, I struggled to think of a way out of this. It took a lot of energy to leap from one tree to another and every landing pushed some of the air from my lungs.

By coincidence and coincidence alone, I was met by a large expanse of seemingly connected branches. I was beyond thankful for the mat of branches because it made moving a lot easier. And once I got some speed up, I knew that I wouldn't have to do any of this leap-climb-leap-climb crap that I'd been wearing myself out on.

I raced along the branches, confident in my ability not to fall off the branches. My goal was simply to get far enough ahead of the wolves that I could jump to the ground, so I could run without fear of falling. It didn't take long before I felt the distance was great enough to allow me to drop from the trees. The ground felt good beneath my feet, but I didn't take any time to appreciate the feeling because seconds counted at the moment.

After a while the wolves were far enough behind that I knew I could get up a tree and hide, which is exactly what I did. I pressed myself flat against a high branch and waited to watch the small wolf pack run past.

* * *

I had been in feline form for too long.

It wasn't normal for me to take this form and live this life for extended periods of time. Before now I hadn't lived this way for more than a weekend at one time. The change was taking its toll on me and I found myself dreaming of being human again, even for just five minutes. It was something that I couldn't risk at the moment because I had to be on constant watch for the wolves.

The sun had disappeared from the sky and the last rays of daylight were fading fast. I didn't want to be running around when it was pitch black so I knew that I needed to make my move soon. I had heard rumours about a big community gathering down on the beach and knew that that would be the best time to strike. When few people, if any, were around to see me.

I dropped from the tree that I'd been hiding in and shook the stiffness from my limbs. I'd been sleeping for most of the day, feeling safe enough amongst the sprawling branches of a tree to let my guard down. Every time I descended from the trees, I took a moment to really feel the security that solid ground brought.

From the edge of the forest I could see that no one was around. All the houses that I was within sight of had their blinds drawn and lights off. I was glad that the town was so close knit, because it meant that only a couple of houses had fences, and none were more than four foot tall. This provided me with easy access to people's yards and ultimately, to the clothes drying on their clotheslines.

Over the last two days I'd been watching the people that came and went from the houses; trying to find someone who was about my size. It wasn't particularly easy to judge someone's size from more than a hundred metres away because, believe it or not, I haven't seen myself from that far away before. I didn't have the liberty to be choosy of the style of their clothes, because there was only one woman that seemed to be my size.

A car came around the corner and I dropped low to the ground, scrunching my eyes closed so that the light of the headlights didn't reflect off them. It was the fastest way to get noticed, to allow light to bounce of your irises while you're trying to hide. When I heard the car engine starting to move away I opened my eyes and made for my target.

Across the small stretch of open field and into the range of the young woman's house, she'd never know I was here; although I was sure that she'd notice the loss of her clothes soon enough. I carefully grasped a plain t-shirt in my large jaws and pulled it down; two pegs flung off the line and bounced off the back wall of the house and the cement pavers under my feet. Dropping the black t-shirt, I mouthed gently at a pair of matching leggings and one of its pegs snapped and hit me square between the eyes.

I ran back to the cover of the trees and darted up into the branches. Once in the shade of my tree of choice's dense canopy, I phased and dressed. It was strange not wearing underwear with clothes that hugged my body so tightly but I didn't have any other choice. My mind was more at ease with the knowledge that I was 'normal' again. I loved being a leopard but normal for me was human.

Jumping down from my branch I stumbled the landing and grazed my palms. Still, it was nice to be in human form. My only problem was that I still had nowhere to go and no way of getting there. I could stay in human form but I had just the one set of clothes and no logical reason for my presence. If I were to stay then I had to find a way to not raise people's suspicions, but I didn't know how to do that.

My mother was secretive and she taught me not to tell anyone anything. I had no friends back in Campbell River, the only one who would miss me would be my brother and recently he'd been more interested in teenage girls than his own sister. I had no time for people and it showed in my social life, in that I have none.

I cursed my mother for her paranoia. Maybe if she'd encouraged even the smallest amount of social interaction then I wouldn't be as lost as I was now. Again it was another hypocritical difference between how she raised me and how she was still raising my brother. She had no problem with him going out and chatting up every girl in the area; he was _the_ player in our town, and I was his weird, socially inept sister.

An idea occurred to me and I jumped at it. I had no clue if it would help me at all, but I had to do something. So I stripped off my new clothes and phased. I pawed at my clothes, getting them dirty and digging my claws in to poke holes in the fabric. Then I raised my paw to my own face and pushed my claws into my cheek, a moment later my paw was back on the ground and I could feel warm fluid flowing down my cheek and neck.

I rubbed my cheek into the earth below me, knowing that the cuts wouldn't heal as long as there was dirt deep within them. This was my plan, make myself bleed and then stop myself from healing. With my cheeks bloody and my chest, stomach and sides caked with a mix of fur, blood, dirt and leaves, I turned my attention to something that would be even more convincing. I put my right leg in my mouth, positioning my large canine over the largest bone, I bit down.

It hurt but I pushed the pain aside as I phased and redressed. I knew that the bone in my leg was now broken and that I would have to keep stressing the bone to stop it healing before they could take an x-ray.

"Help!" I bellowed as I dashed into the township, "Help me!" The weight and force of running sent stabbing waves of pain up my body with every step. It was a horrible idea to have done so much damage and I cursed myself for being so impulsive, "Somebody, please help me."

As I made it to the street and into the yellow glow of the street light, I started to yell louder; demanding that someone made themselves known to 'save' me from my predicament. I wondered whether I should have gone closer to the beach before starting this, but it seemed that proximity was not necessary.

Three muscular men turned onto the street and, letting the pain in my leg finally take me down, I fell onto the hard road.


	4. Fractured

"Collin! Go get Sue." the tallest of the three yelled as he raced to my side.

It was a strange sight, seeing someone actually wanting to help me. In my whole life my brother was the only one that ever seemed to care about my health and safety, at least until he hit puberty and other girls became his focus. I instinctively flinched away from the tallest man as tears streamed down my face, washing away the dirt from my skin.

Only two of the men reached me, as the third had disappeared back down the street that they had emerged from. The two men knelt down beside me, concern written across their handsome faces. I felt a strange pang of regret for doing this now. At least, that was until I recognised one of the men.

It was Jared, the Shifter that had looked into my eyes and yet not noticed me at all. It was a stark contrast to now, with his eyes scanning my body and seeing everything. He reached out a gentle hand and stroked my hair, it was a bizarrely affectionate act and I pulled away from him before he could do it again.

"Shh..." he hushed me and took a deep breath. It was then that he picked up my scent and I remembered why this fraud was necessary, "What happened to you?"

"I... I..." I started to hyperventilate and tried to cover my face. It looked like I was trying to hide from him but in truth I could feel the itch that told me there was a cut healing on my face and I needed to rub more dirt into it. Fast healing would certainly give away my biggest secret.

The second man reached out to gently cup my shoulder, "It's okay, we're here to help."

"It was so big." I whimpered, not removing my hands from my face, "I... I was so scared."

Jared tried to pry my fingers away from my eyes, "What was big?"

I looked up at him, staring deep into his big brown eyes. By God he was handsome. Everything about him was so masculine and strong, and yet there was something sweet and gentle about him. I'd never been this close to someone so handsome and my mouth dried out as I took in his appearance and registered his proximity. My brother's friends were the only young men that I'd ever been this close to and none of them were as attractive as Jared.

"It was... was..." I was choking on my words and got a feeling that my tears convinced them that the choking was due to my emotional state and not my nerves at being so close to someone so attractive, "a cat. It attacked me."

This was dangerous because it would mean that I wouldn't be able to safely phase again in this area. But I hoped that it would mean that I could slip over the border of their land and away from the Cullens. My main reasoning though was to throw them off who I was, an attack would explain why I smelt so similar to the Shifter they had been chasing for the last week.

We smelt slightly different in human form than in Shifter form, because the DNA being expressed was different in both cases and it was our cells, and therefore our DNA, that made our scents what they were. As a human I smelt like a blend of normal human and my shifter animal. Individuals within a species all tended to smell the same, unless you were one of them. I wondered if I was considered a different species to these men, seeing how my animal was different.

Jared's eyes betrayed his thoughts. He had expected that answer and he was saddened by it. I wasn't sure why it upset him but it most definitely did. Jared looked up at his friend and I was able to tear my eyes away from his handsome face to acknowledge his companion.

If Jared was handsome than this second guy was absolutely stunning. The two men looked very similar but there were a few significant differences. The second man had a slightly thinner nose, a wider face and fuller lips. Overall he was cuter than Jared. He was just as masculine as Jared, but he looked even softer.

Now I was starting to feel flustered. Few people had ever really looked at me before, mainly because I'd worked my arse off not to be seen, but now there were two very handsome men kneeling very close to me, wearing nothing but shorts. For the first time in my life, I felt like an awkward teenager, and it had only taken eighteen years.

The second man smiled at me before looking up at Jared with eyes that said more than I could decipher. I didn't like being out of the loop and I really wanted to hear this second man talk again, as I hadn't really noticed him when he spoke before. I wanted his voice to be as amazing as his appearance but wasn't sure if it were possible for someone to be _that_ attractive.

"Can you walk?" Jared asked as his attention jumped back to me.

I tried to move my legs, despite my impressive healing abilities my right leg was still as painful as it had been when I'd fallen down. It worried me that it hadn't healed at all and I wondered if maybe I had overloaded my body with injuries. I had never had a problem with healing broken bones before but for some reason this time was different.

The second guy's head popped into my eye line, "Miss? Do you think you can walk?" His voice was as delectable as his face and I had to push down strange thoughts and feelings that I had never had before.

"No." I murmured and reached down to my right leg, "My leg hurts."

The second man leant back to let the street light shine on my leg and I was sickened by the sight. My tibia was well and truly broken and was as close to a compound fracture as possible without splitting the skin. The lower half of my bone had moved within the skin and was now pressing against the inside of my shin, forcing the skin to bulge around it.

I made to touch it but the second man grabbed my hand to stop me, "Don't. We need to get you to the clinic. I'm going to carry you. Is that alright?"

The thought of his strong arms lifting me, holding me to his firm chest, had my stomach doing flips. I very much liked the idea of his touch although it also made me very nervous. There was no evidence that he was as attracted to me as I was to him and the thought of looking like a fool made me feel queasy. No boy or man had ever made me feel this way and I really didn't like it.

I nodded numbly, afraid to say anything in case my voice gave me away. I had never felt this foolish before. And as his arms looped under me I wished I'd protested more. His skin was warm and smooth, and I worried that my skin wasn't warm or smooth enough for him. But the joys of his touch were soon obliterated as he tried to pick me up.

"Stop!" I screamed in his ear just as he applied pressure to the underside of my thighs and to my back, "Please, put me down." It wasn't so much the pain that made me yell at him, but rather the fact that someone was touching me while I was feeling so much pain. I was certain that if I was in my feline form then I would have batted him with a large paw of unsheathed claws.

He looked stunned and dropped me, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, but we need to get you out of here. The cat might..."

Something told me that the mention of 'the cat' should scare me and I thought back to the sight of my mother phasing in front of me. My eyes widened and my breathing shortened. I gripped onto the second man's arm, my fingers biting hard at his flesh until his brow furrowed with discomfort. I'd seen enough horror movies to know this was how I was supposed to react at the mention of my attacker.

"Brady's right, Miss... what's your name?" Jared asked and I realised that I'd forgotten he was even here.

For a second the question didn't quite register and I sat there staring blindly at him. When my brain decided to kick into gear, I said something that I never expected to say, "Bennett Diardi."

Jared raised an eyebrow, as if questioning the fact that my first name was Bennett. The truth was that most people assumed I was a guy because of my first name. My mother used to call me B and my brother called me Bennie, which had always made people look when he used it in public. Once again, I felt like my mother had something against me, she named me Bennett and my brother Jesse. I couldn't help but think that she could easily have swapped those around to make it more conventional, but instead I have to live my life getting _that_ look when I introduce myself.

"Well, Bennett," Jared continued without properly questioning me, "we need to move you. I promise nothing will happen to you while we're here but the cat may still be around here."

I gulped and averted my gaze, I still felt a little guilty for lying to them. They had no idea that 'the cat' was right in front of them and it was no risk to me. I looked down at my leg, which was starting to swell; if I didn't get it put in place soon then it might start healing incorrectly and I did not want that happening.

"Okay, just... go slowly."

Brady smiled at me and I thought I might melt. His smile was intoxicating and I could feel my brain turn a little mushy. It wasn't fair. One man should not be so damn attractive. I wondered which wolf he was, the only ones that I could remember the look of were Jared and Sam. The thought of Sam made me wonder if he would fall for my trick.

I grunted through clenched teeth as Brady picked me up again. The weight of my foot at the end of my broken bone was the most painful thing that I'd ever felt, I couldn't believe that I was able to walk on my leg when now it was throbbing with pain just because it could. Brady gave in to my request and he moved slowly, being very careful not to jerk or jolt my tender limb, while Jared ran ahead to make sure that everything was ready at the Clinic.

When we got there the lights were on and the front door was wide open. Waiting by the door was Jared, with a broad smile on his face as he held the door open. Brady moved with great care and made only the most deliberate movements so as not to knock my leg on the railing or the doorframe.

Once inside I was taken straight to a room at the back of the building. It was the typical, sterile doctor's office. Brady placed me neatly on the bed at the far wall and it wasn't until he stepped back that I realised there were two other people in the room. The tall and intimidating Sam and a normal woman, who looked just as hard as Sam, if not harder.

The hard woman stepped forward, there was something in the way she approached me that made me think she was a mother. She was fearless and for a moment I couldn't quite comprehend her attitude. That was until I remembered that I looked like a fragile, injured human girl, not a giant man-eating leopard. Having spent so much time on four feet had messed me up a little.

"It's okay, sweetie." she cooed and I knew that she had to be a mother, "I just need to look at your leg."

My heart thumped and my stomach squirmed at the thought of anyone touching my leg. Even I didn't want to touch it and it was attached to me. I looked down at my damaged leg, the swelling in my shin was worse than ever and for the first time I noticed just how bruised my leg was. The bruise poked through the holes that I'd put in the leggings and was a deep blue grey.

Someone touched my shoulder and I jumped at the feeling. It was the hard woman, she'd taken up a seat beside the bed and was looking at me with soft eyes that clashed with the hard features of her face, "I need to remove your pants, is that okay?"

I was about to say yes, until I remembered that I wasn't wearing underwear, which had me pushing out the answer almost faster than I could actually say it, "No!" My eyes darted between the men that stood behind this woman; in my whole life the only male to have seen me naked was my brother and I was about four the last time that happened. I was a 'woman' now and I did not like the idea of these men seeing any part of me naked, at least not like this.

"Okay, it's alright. But I'll have to cut them away then?" I nodded before she'd even finished asking the question and she gestured for Sam to grab a pair of scissors from the desk, "My name is Sue, what's yours?"

I really hated this question, "Bennett Diardi."

"That's a nice name." Sue smiled at me as she took the scissors from Sam.

She wheeled the chair down the bed so that she could look at my leg. I gripped the thin mattress and clenched my jaw, expecting pain to surge forward and engulf me. The scissors were cold against my skin and the chill was as sharp as a knife against my inflamed skin. A muscle twitched in my leg, trying to pull my skin away from the metal but only succeeding in sending a wave of pain through my shin.

A large mass moved beside my head and my eyes jumped to Sam as he knelt beside my head, "Where are you from, Bennett?"

"Canada." I mumbled as the sound of scissors shearing through the fabric hit my ears, making me cringe.

Sam smiled, he was handsome like Jared and Brady, although I still felt that Brady was the best looking of the three. He reached down to grab my hand in a friendly display of support, "Where in Canada exactly?"

Author's Note:

I'm enjoying writing this story more than my other two so chances are that I'll probably update this one more regularly then them. I hope you're enjoying it too because I have some big-ish things in store.

Please, review and tell me what you think. Good or bad, I appreciate it all.


	5. Digging Deeper

Sam kept up the small talk until Sue had successfully cut away half of the leggings to reveal my injury. The skin around the displaced bone segment was quickly turning black and had a painful red edge to it. If it weren't my leg then I probably would have run from the room to throw up. I didn't know it was possible for bones to move like that without rupturing the skin. And I was surprised to find that there were still puncture wounds from where my teeth had torn through my skin.

It took most of the night to fix my leg. After having a good look at my leg, and poking a few spots that made me swear out loud, Sue called someone and not long after there as an ambulance waiting to take me to a hospital. Once there I was sent to have an x-ray done, at which point I was properly diagnosed with a displaced oblique fracture. The x-ray technician said that I was lucky the bone hadn't punctured the skin and that surgery was not necessary, which I was understandably thankful for because surgery would quickly give away what I was.

The three men had to hold me down while Sue and another nurse pushed the bone back into place. My resistance contained no words but rather a lot of physical actions, hence having to be restrained. The pain was beyond anything that I'd ever felt before and lingered for a few minutes after my leg was released. With the x-ray done and my bone repositioned, I was advised that I didn't need to spend the night and for reasons that don't make a lot of sense to me, I was transported back to La Push so that I could have a cast put on my swollen limb.

It had been numb for the last ten minutes as I lay quietly on the bed watching Sue and Jared wrap my leg in cotton and then plaster strips. Sam was trying to have a conversation with me but the combination of pain, confusion and lust had me unable to follow a single thing that he said. Brady was sitting beside Sam and every time he smiled at me I felt my cheeks burning. These feelings had never happened to me before and I found myself wishing that they would go away and never come back.

"Bennett? Bennett!" Sam said with gentle determination, "Are you okay? You keep zoning out on us."

The truth was I wasn't zoning out on them, I was zoning out on Sam. Brady had just grabbed my hand because I'd flinched as a wave of pain and nausea rolled over me. His fingers felt so nice when they wrapped around my relatively slight hand. I was by no means petite but next to these guys I looked miniscule, and that was never more noticeable then when my hand was nestled within Brady's.

"Sorry, I'm just tired." I lied and gave in to the urge to yawn, which came at just the right time to drive my point home.

Sue looked up the bed at me, "We're almost done here and then you can go home. We should really call someone; get them to pick you up."

Oh, shit. This was not something that I had bargained on. They expected me to have family, or at least friends, that would want to help me, that would be around for me. But I had nothing of the sort, I still didn't really have an excuse for being on Quileute land. I needed an explanation for my presence and something logical too.

Tears welled in my eyes; part of me was thinking that a sob story would be best here. Maybe my parents were dead, my whole family killed in a fire or some sort of horrific accident. No, I couldn't risk something that should have made the news, because then they'd figure out that it never happened. It had to be something slightly mundane, something that would easily evade the prying eyes of reporters.

That was when I thought of the signs that had been posted around my home town, with my name in big bold letters. Why had I given them my full name? All they had to do now was Google it and they would find the missing person report claiming that I'd run away from home. I wished my mother hadn't been so worried about people realising that I was missing, or that she'd just told everyone that I'd gone to live with my biological father or something.

A light bulb flashed in my head as I wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall, "I don't have anyone." I tried to think of the name of the guy that my mother claimed I ran away with. Telling them that my boyfriend had dumped me and left me in an unknown land would certainly get me some sympathy.

"There must be someone." Sue sighed as she finished applying the last strip of plaster.

I shook my head as I whimpered, "My mother doesn't want me back. She hates me."

"Oh, dear... I'm sure that's not the case. I bet she's up in Canada, worried sick about you. When was the last time you spoke to her?" Sue's eyes were big and bright with concern as she enquired about my mother.

The truth, or as close as I could get to it, seemed to be my best option so I let rip, "Three weeks. We had an argument and she told me that she never wanted me. She said that she hated me and that she never wanted to see me again. I tried to talk to her but she chased me away."

Everyone was quiet as they listened to me and for a few moments after I'd finished I couldn't tell if they believed me or not. I needed them to believe me because I had a strong feeling that if they thought I was lying now then they would never trust me, and therefore would likely never leave me alone. But after a few shocked seconds, Brady squeezed my hand and smiled at me.

"You must have some friends who would take you in though, even just for a couple of days." Jared wondered aloud and his face told me that he believed that my mother had chased me away, which she had but it was still nice to know he believed me.

It actually hurt to shake my head this time, I don't think I'd ever said out loud that I didn't have friends and it was surprisingly hard to do. In part it was the simple fact that I had no friends but it was also the fact that Brady was watching me and I didn't want to look like a loser in front of him. That was when I thanked my mum for her paranoia and desire to not look weird to the people around her.

"I came here with my..." I remembered that the Cullens had already told these men that I was a female and I wasn't sure if they'd believe me if I said this Shifter were actually male. So I pushed down my desire to claim that I had a boyfriend and continued with what I thought was my only option, "my girlfriend." They smiled meekly at me but their smiles faded as I continued, "She started to get angry at me and then... it's not possible." I finished in a whisper, trying to look shocked and confused by the idea.

Sam leant in closer, his hand rested on my shoulder, "Then what?"

I stared at him for a few moments, trying to think of the best words to portray my supposed astonishment, "People can't do that though. I... I... she must have drugged me. I had to be hallucinating."

The idea settled behind Sam's eyes and I knew that he was making the assumption that I wanted him to. He had come to the conclusion that 'the cat' that had attacked me was actually my girlfriend. I couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever figure out that everything I'd just said was a lie, he wouldn't if I had any say in it but I hadn't been particularly lucky of late.

Brady gripped my hand tighter and whispered softly, "It's alright. Just tell us what you saw, we won't judge you."

My eyes locked on to Brady's beautiful brown ones and I found myself wondering why I'd never been attracted to anyone else like this. I had always thought I was weird for not crushing on every slightly attractive boy who looked at me but I'd put that down to the fact that I was a Shifter and therefore not entirely human. Maybe that was why I was so attracted to him, because we were both Shifters.

God, I hoped that wasn't the case. As handsome as Brady was and as enjoyable as it was to listen to his voice, I was starting to remember how bad he smelt when we were both in our animal forms. I could still smell dog on him now but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as when I was a cat. If I had to be attracted to a Shifter than I wanted it to be a feline Shifter, or at least one that didn't have the lingering smell of wet dog.

I realised that Brady was still waiting for an answer and I tried to remember the name of the guy my mum had said that I ran off with. Once I had the name I tried to think of a feminine version of it, "We've been hiding out in the woods for the last week. Pippa had me hide in trees when she went out looking for food and she'd always be gone for so long. I went looking for her this evening and got lost." The idea to bring the Cullens into my story was too tempting to pass up, "When she found me she was furious, she yelled at me about being hounded by _vampires_," I tried to sound as incredulous as possible about this, "and when I said that she was paranoid, that vampires weren't real, she... she lost it.

"And Pippa was gone. There was a... a giant cat where Pippa had been and it chased me through the woods. But I wasn't fast enough, it caught me and..." I started to try to force the tears out without it looking like I was forcing them and sobbed into my hands. This meant that I couldn't see whether they believed me or not but it was out there now and there wasn't much I could do to go back on it.

"You know what?" Sue suddenly exclaimed and I peeked around my fingers, "I think that's what happened. I think you and your girlfriend may have accidently eaten something poisonous and what you saw was just a reaction to it."

It didn't take a genius to realise that she was trying to convince me Shifters weren't real. I wouldn't fall for that but I guessed that a normal person probably would so I pulled back on the tears a little, "Then where's Pippa?"

"We'll go have a look for her, but she's probably found somewhere to sleep it off. I'm sure she'll come looking for you in the morning." Sam smiled at me as he got up and left the room, followed by Jared and Brady.

Sue watched them leave before turning to me, "I'll grab you some crutches and you can stay at my house tonight. You look like you could use a good wash and a warm bed."

* * *

Brady's POV

I couldn't stop thinking about what we'd just been told. Poor Bennett had been through a lot in the last few weeks. Attacked by her mother and then by her girlfriend, she must be feeling so alone. It was nice to hear Sue offer her a place to stay because I couldn't bear to think of her spending another night outside in the elements.

When we reached the cover of the trees we phased and were greeted by dozens of questions about what had just happened. It took Sam a mere second to order everyone to shut up so that he could answer their questions one by one. He went through the whole story from beginning to end, and he lingered on the mention of the Cullens. Jared had already started to blame the Cullens for what happened to Bennett and Sam calmed him down by telling him that he'll have a word with Jacob about it.

As Sam explained what had happened I found myself wandering off into my own little daydream.

When I'd first seen her lying in the street I'd thought she was fairly attractive, she was sleek and on the tall side for a woman. It was hard to pick out her features as they were covered in dirt and grime and her hair was clumped with mud and leaves, but from what I could make out she was pretty. The most obvious feature being her unbelievably green eyes, that were like two flawless emeralds sunk into her sockets.

It was the story behind her attack that caught my attention. Well, not the whole story but rather one minor detail. Bennett had a girlfriend called Pippa. This meant that Pippa was the Shifter that we'd been chasing for the last week and if she'd just attacked her girlfriend then it was unlikely she'd have gone far. Then again, maybe she was so appalled by her actions that she had run away and had no plans of coming back; she was a bitch if that was the case.

The idea of a female Shifter imprinting on another woman popped into my head and latched onto my imagination.

I couldn't stop myself from thinking about it. Bennett was very attractive and I felt that it would only be right that her girlfriend was just as eye-catching. And with that thought a million other flooded into my brain and all I could think about was Bennett and Pippa, alone together.

Bennett's taut stomach and firm breasts were pressed against the naked body of another woman. Their slender hands roaming sensually over one another's smooth skin as gentle moans filled the surroundings. Pippa's mouth moved away from Bennett's and started to investigate the other woman's beautiful chest, her warm lips found a perky nipple and embraced it.

"Brady!" Sam barked and tore me away from my not so innocent thoughts.


	6. Scared

It was so nice to sleep in a warm bed. In fact, it was so nice to just be sleeping under a roof that I would have slept on the tiled floor of the kitchen. Sue cleaned up my face before we left the clinic and she covered my shredded cheek with gauze and bandaids, telling me that it should heal in a few days. I found it a little confronting to be in Sue's house and having her care for me, because not even my mother had shown me this sort of affection over the last decade.

Soon after I woke up, Sam came over with his wife, Emily. Sam said that he wanted to check up on me and make sure I slept alright, but I figured out pretty soon that that wasn't entirely the case. Out of the blue, Sue suggested that Emily take me to Forks for the day so that I could get some clothes, as she'd found out last night that I had nothing but the leggings and shirt that I wore. It was clear to me that she had planned this, particularly when her daughter showed up and decided to come along too.

Which made things massively awkward.

There was some sort of tension between Sam and Leah, both of whom smelt ever so faintly of wet dog, and there was something odd about the way Leah interacted with Emily. I pretended not to notice but I had to take a moment to work it out. The most logical answer, by my reasoning, was that Leah was part of the other pack, the pack that tended to the vampires. I guessed this because there was a tinge of sweet sickness to her that made me think she'd been around vampires recently.

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to go with them, as I was unable to think of a reason not to. And it wasn't until we were half way to Forks that I realised the opportunity that I was missing. If it had just been me and the oh-so-human Emily then I could have snuck off, but now there was a Shifter with us, who would not only be able to keep up with me should I run but would also be able to tell everyone that I'd lied. And I didn't want it getting back to Brady that I couldn't be trusted.

My affections for Brady confused me. I'd never been so giddy or stupid around another person before, and I'd never cared so much about what someone else thought. I knew that Brady thinking I was a liar would not actually hurt me, and yet the idea that he'd think that, was painful. I had to get a handle on things before I did something really stupid, like blurting out the whole truth to Brady.

"So, Bennett? That's an unusual name." Emily smiled at me from the review mirror as we drove down the long windy road to Forks.

I shrugged, "What can I say? My mother's a bitch."

Leah turned around in the passenger seat to look at me, "I like it, it's different. Different is good."

"Not always." I mumbled and looked out the window.

Emily and Leah were silent for a few minutes. Leah turned back around in her seat and Emily kept glancing at me in the mirror. They were trying to think of something that would keep the conversation going, seemingly unaware that I was more than happy to get to Forks, shop and then go back in complete and utter silence.

Leah turned back around, "Was it because of you sexuality?" Emily gasped and I looked at Leah with a furrowed brow, unsure of what she was trying to get at, "Is that the different thing that wasn't good?"

How was I supposed to answer that? Firstly, I wasn't actually gay, so I had no idea what it was like to experience prejudice from that facet. Secondly, I'd been referring to my Shifter-hood and the drama that it had caused in my life. But I couldn't tell Leah that so I decided to just agree with her assumption and nodded.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of it. It isn't your problem if people are too bigoted to see beyond who you love." She sounded like she was speaking from experience and I wondered if maybe she was gay. Maybe she was in love with Emily and maybe Sam knows it, which would explain the awkwardness. I started to worry about what my lie had gotten me into.

It was Emily's turn to make me feel like shit for lying, "If you're worried about Pippa then I promise you that Sam and the guys will find out where she is. They'll get her back to you."

I sighed heavily, "Maybe."

"You're not a very talkative person, are you?" Emily pondered as she checked the road was clear so she could make her turn.

Leah smiled over her shoulder at me but I couldn't return her grin. I was getting sick of lying to people. I never lied to my mother or brother and seeing how they were the basis for most of my social life, it was not normal for me to lie so much. My family didn't really care for much; we had never been an emotional bunch, so there was little reason to lie about things. All of a sudden I was in a situation where emotions were high and I felt like my life depended on lying to these people, it was not a pleasant feeling.

Personally, I blamed the Cullens. If that stupid bronze haired bastard had have just let me leave then none of this would be happening. I would be a state away by now, trying to carve out my own patch of the continent where I could live quietly by myself. I liked quiet and quiet was not what the Quileutes had.

They were wolves. They craved social interactions. For them howling at the moon was just another peaceful evening, noise didn't faze them. Noise, crowds and action; that was their thing, but it most certainly wasn't mine.

Leah shifted in her seat so that she could look at me without twisting her spine, "I'm sure Pippa will be waiting for you when we get back."

"No, she won't." I grumbled as I turned my head further away from Leah.

She sighed and reached back to pat my knee, "Everything will be fine. Sam and his boys will make sure of it."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Emily flash a look at Leah. She was pissed off by something and I got the feeling it had to do with Leah bringing Sam into the equation. This little love triangle was definitely something that I wanted to know more about and that confused me. I normally didn't care about the drama in other people's lives.

But they were Shifters and outside of my family, I'd never met Shifters before. I was curious about them. I wanted to know everything I could about them and their culture. Growing up I was under the impression that Shifters just didn't do groups but I was starting to think that that was just my family.

We arrived at a little boutique and my nerves spiked. There were a hell of a lot of people around and I didn't do people. So I followed quietly behind Emily and Leah, determined not to catch anyone's attention. I felt like I was succeeding when someone slammed into me as they left a store. How they could miss me when I was hobbling around on crutches I had no idea but they had, and if it weren't for my Shifter heritage I was sure that I'd have fallen on my arse.

Emily got me to sit in a changing room while her and Leah collected clothes from the shop floor and brought them in to me. I was wearing some of Leah's old clothes, which were probably a size or two too small because Leah was a bean pole and I actually had a little bit of meat on my bones. It wasn't that she was underweight, she was just spectacularly thin.

"Okay, I think we've got you enough. Just close the door, don't lock it, we'll make sure no one goes bursting in on you." Emily beamed at me, although the smile was slightly lopsided because of the scars on the side of her face that seemed to inhibit her movement.

It took far too long to finish shopping and get back to La Push. After the boutique we made our way to a little shoe shop, where we didn't buy anything. It took four more stores and hours of looking before Emily and Leah agreed that we had finished. There were more bags of clothes in the car on the way back, then I think I'd ever owned in my entire life.

Once back at La Push, Emily dropped Leah and I off at Sue's. Leah had told me during lunch that I would be staying at Sue's until they found Pippa. Apparently they thought that I wouldn't want to leave without her and so they were willing to let me stay. It made me feel worse for lying to them but I was still sure that I didn't have another choice.

If I wanted out then I needed their help. The Cullens were set on stopping me from leaving, for reasons that I did not know, and I couldn't keep living in the trees, it just wasn't me. I had to suck up my discomfort at lying to them because it was a necessity that I couldn't avoid.

As we walked through the front door, I could smell someone unfamiliar. What I found more disturbing was the definite stench of vampire amongst the stranger's scent. I wanted to run away and hide somewhere but I knew that would be too suspicious. Instead, I reluctantly followed Leah into the living room where Sue was sitting very close to a man that I'd never seen before.

He had curly brown hair and a thick moustache. As we entered the room he looked up at us with beady brown eyes, he was human but the vampire scent was definitely coming off of him. It was stronger than it was on Leah and I wondered if maybe he was a Fang Banger. That's what my brother and I called the vampire groupies whose lives revolved around a vampire or clan of vampires; I personally found it disgusting.

"Did you have a good day, girls?" Sue asked cheerily as Leah made her way to the armchair on the other side of the room.

Leah answered when it became clear that I didn't want to, "It was fun. At least Bennett has some nice clothes now."

The stranger was still smiling at me, it was as if he hadn't even noticed Leah. I didn't like the attention that he was showing me and I was hesitant to shake his hand when he reached his out in greeting, "I'm Charlie Swan, the Chief of Police in this area."

I took his hand and shook it very briefly, not wanting to touch him for too long. Once I'd let go of his hand I dropped into the armchair beside me. I knew that my leg was healed but Sue said that it would be at least a month before anyone tried to remove the cast.

"I called Charlie this morning because I think that we should contact your mother. At least tell her that you've been hurt and you are in need of assistance."

By the time Sue had finished making excuses for telling this vampire lover about my presence, I was shaking my head. I knew that there was no need to call my mother; she wouldn't care what they said because she didn't care about me, not any more. It was a waste of everyone's time for them to even pick up the phone, let alone dial the number.

Chief Swan was the next to speak, "When Sue called I did some checking around. Your mother filed a Missing Persons Report and according to the officers that I spoke to in your home town, she's very worried about you."

"It's an act." I growled, annoyed that they felt the need to push this, "I told you she doesn't care, don't you believe me?"

Sue's hard face softened a little, "No, dear, it's not that at all. It's just that, I'm a mother and I know that sometimes daughters can mistake maternal protectiveness for disdain."

I hauled myself violently out of the chair and on instinct Leah mimicked me. I paid her no attention as I yelled at her mother, "I have not made any such mistake, she threatened my life to make me leave. There is nothing maternal about her."

Chief Swan stood up in front of me, as if trying to block Sue from me, "Please, Miss Diardi, calm down. I would just like your permission to call your mother. If she truly doesn't care for you, as you believe, then we'll never bring this up again. But she should at least know how you are."

My anger was building, although I knew that I wasn't really all that angry. I was scared. Scared that I didn't know what my mother would tell them. Scared that the credibility of my lie was in jeopardy and out of my hands. It was not a good feeling and my anger was welling, to try to scare them as much as they were scaring me. I knew scaring them wouldn't work unless I could phase and I knew that I couldn't phase.

"Fine. Call my mother, but I'm telling you now, that you're wasting everyone's time." I snapped and tried to storm from the room, which was hard to do because of the heavy cast around my shin.

I had nowhere to go really so I hopped out of the house and tried to make my way to the forest. It had rained early this morning and the ground was soft and muddy. The small foot of each crutch sunk deep into the grass and within a few clumsy steps I was sitting on the moist ground, my crutches jutting out of the earth at odd angles.

A shadow engulfed me but I was afraid to look up to see who or what it was. I didn't have to though because the creator of the shadow sat down beside me. They slung an arm over my shoulder and I could tell from the size of the hand that it was a man who was sitting next to me. I looked up to come face to face with Brady.

Suddenly, I felt incredibly nervous. Brady was touching me, of his own volition. The feel of his warm skin against the back of my neck was sending little electrical pulses all over my body. It was a beautiful feeling and I didn't want it to ever end. The fact that Brady was happy to sit in silence only made the whole moment so much better.


	7. Family Secrets

Seth's POV

I was exhausted. We'd spent the whole day trekking around the Forks border trying to see if we could locate the Shifter that's been hassling us. Jake had increased our efforts after we heard about the attack on the young girl, Bennett, but still we were as lost as ever. We hadn't found the smallest trace of the Shifter and according to Sam they'd lost the trail on their side of the border too.

Sam had come to the conclusion that the Shifter, Pippa, must had swam away from La Push, as there were no tracks to follow on land. It turned out that Bennett and Pippa were actually in a relationship when the attack had happened. Jake had suggested that maybe Pippa had imprinted on Bennett and I wasn't the only one who had reacted quite immaturely at the idea of a female Shifter imprinting on a human female.

Leah had been rather pissed off at me for my 'simple minded behaviour'. She liked Bennett, although Bennett seemed more than a little reserved around everyone. Not that anyone blamed her, both her mother and her girlfriend had betrayed her within the space of a month, it was natural that she wouldn't be very trusting.

Mum had called me to her place as they were about to call Bennett's mother and she wanted a member of each pack to be there when the call was made. I got the feeling that she really just wanted Leah and I there as support, because Charlie was working until late this evening and she was afraid that Bennett had not exaggerated her mother's actions. Mum thought that we should all know what the poor girl had been through so we didn't upset her with ill chosen words. She also hoped that Kathleen Diardi might be able to shed some light on the relationship between her daughter and Pippa.

Apparently the missing person's sign said that Bennett had run off with a man called Philip which had really confused us all, but Charlie had said that he'd seen it once before. When a parent was unable to accept their child's sexuality and so would refer to their son's or daughter's significant other by a name that made them sound straight. I couldn't believe that any parent could be so cruel as to insult their child with such behaviour.

Mum had put the phone on speaker so that everyone could hear what Kathleen Diardi, Bennett's mother, had to say about her daughter's disappearance. The number had been dialled and we were waiting for someone to answer the phone. We were about to give up and try again later when the phone stopped ringing. A male voice answered the call.

"Yo." he sounded quite young and I couldn't help but think that Mum would have smacked me upside the head for answering a phone call so casually.

Mum answered as politely as she could without scolding the boy for his telephone manners, "Hello, my name is Sue Clearwater and I was..."

"I'm sorry but we're not interested in any sort of discount on anything we own." the boy sounded annoyed at being disrupted.

Mum made sure to talk loudly so that he would hear her over his own grumbling, "No, I'm not trying to sell you anything. May I ask who you are?"

He huffed into the phone before answering, "Jesse." Charlie had told us that according to birth records, Bennett had a twin brother called Jesse. It surprised me that he would still be living there when their mother had supposedly chased off Bennett.

"And your mother is Kathleen Diardi?" Mum questioned as she looked at Leah with confusion written across her face.

There was silence for a moment and when Jesse responded he sounded cautious, "Yes... what do you want?"

A small smile twitched at the edges of Mum's lips as she answered him, "I need to talk to your mother about your sister, Bennett?"

Again there was silence but there was something in the silence that made me think that Jesse was worried about something. The next thing we heard was muffled yelling, "Mum! Mum, there's a call for you! It's about Benny!" I could tell from his tone that he was concerned and I hoped that the concern was for his sister, although I couldn't be sure. If his mother had kept him around then there was a chance that he agreed with her decision.

After a short kafuffle we got an unexpectedly polite answer, "Hello, this is Kathleen Diardi. How can I help you?"

I couldn't quite read the expression on my mother's face as she processed the words and the tone, "Well, firstly, your daughter is okay but she was involved in an accident."

"An accident, what sort of accident?" I couldn't help but feel that the worry this woman was showing was more than a little put on.

I could tell that Mum felt the same way, "She was attacked by an animal."

Everyone was shocked to hear Kathleen Diardi laugh at the sound of her daughter's trauma, "An animal attack? You say she's alright though."

"Um..." Mum was thrown by the reaction, "yes, her leg is broken but..."

Kathleen interrupted before Mum could finish, "She's fucking fine. The girl could use a little toughening up anyway."

Mum was outraged by the blatant disregard that this mother showed for her only daughter, "She's your daughter and she's in pain. Her leg is broken and her girlfriend is missing, she could really use a mother right now."

"Oh, fuck her leg." I couldn't believe that she was actually being so heartless, "And she left with her useless boyfriend, she does _not_ have a girlfriend. She's an idiot but she'd never do that, she knows how unnatural _that_ is."

Even if her mother hadn't sent her away, I wouldn't have blamed her for leaving. To tell your daughter that she was unnatural was beyond mean. It was entirely understandable that she would want to leave. I was thankful that I had a mother who would never treat me that way.

"Your daughter is not unnatural. She's injured and alone."

"You don't know my daughter. If you did, you'd know that she goes against all the laws of nature. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to end this call and never hear from you again." she sounded so cold and uncaring that I felt chills run down my spine.

Mum was almost in tears as she sighed, "Not even for your daughter."

"You know what, you busy body bitch? You can call me but unless it's to tell me that she's lying on a slab in the morgue, then I don't care."

And with that she hung up.

Everyone was silent. This woman didn't deserve to be a mother. Not when all she wanted to know was when her daughter was dead. What could Bennett have possibly done to warrant such horrific disgust from her mother? It was almost like Kathleen Diardi wasn't really Bennett's mother at all.

"What the hell was that?" Paul eventually gasped, he looked as appalled as I felt.

Mum was crying softly now and she sniffed hard before answering, "That is the worst mother in the world."

I moved from my seat to sit on the arm of my mother's chair, where I pulled her into a hug. She may have looked like a hard woman and often acted like a hard woman, but she was a loving mother and I knew that she was hurting for Bennett. Bennett needed someone who was going to support her and she had no one, not even her girlfriend.

Sam was shaking his head, staring at the carpet, "Why do you think she keeps Jesse around, though?"

That was a very good question. This woman sounded like there wasn't a maternal bone in her body, so why would she let her son stick around for any longer than she had to? Why was Bennett so easy to turn away, when she couldn't or wouldn't do the same to her son? Surely, a mother would have a better relationship with her daughter than with her son.

"I don't want to say it but... maybe there's something that Bennett isn't telling us?" Jake suggested and I noticed that Leah was glaring at him.

She snapped at our Alpha, "Like what?"

"Like why her mother is so angry. I'm not saying that Bennett is the one to blame but maybe she knows something that her mother doesn't want anyone knowing." Jake was smart enough to know when not to push on Leah's buttons, and this was one of those times.

Leah shook her head, "I think her mother might be a homophobe. I mean, we all heard her. Saying that her daughter was unnatural, suggesting that homosexuality was stupid. Her mother is a bigoted bitch, plain and simple."

Leah finished with authority and just as she did, the phone rang. Everyone jumped, especially me because I was just about sitting on the phone dock. I moved to kneel in front of the couch so Mum could answer the phone.

"Hello, Clearwater residence." Mum said with a slightly shaky voice.

"Mrs Clearwater, is it?" We were all surprised to hear Jesse's voice.

Mum gulped but I could see a smile growing on her lips, "Yes, Jesse."

Jesse sounded genuinely distressed, "Is Benny alright? What happened to her?"

There was a huge smile on Mum's face as she realised that there was someone that cared about Bennett after all, "Physically, she's fine. She was attacked by a bear and it broke her leg but otherwise there was no real damage."

"Physically?" It made me smile that Jesse would pick up on the qualifier, "What about emotionally?"

Mum sighed, "Pippa was there during the attack, but we haven't been able to locate her since."

Jesse was quiet, the only thing we heard from him were his slow and heavy breaths. It was nice to know that someone actually cared about Bennett's welfare and didn't hate her because she was attracted to another woman.

Jesse sighed, "Is Benny there; I'd like to talk to her?"

Mum adjusted her position so that she was facing the phone, as if she would be able to hear Jesse better if she was sitting in the right spot, "No, she's not. She didn't want to talk to your mother."

"Do you think she's dead? Pippa, that is." Jesse asked, and I figured his last question was a set up so that he didn't suggest that Pippa was dead in front of Bennett.

"We are still looking for her and we hold hope that she's just hiding somewhere." This was a lie but how do we tell him that Bennett's girlfriend was a Shifter that almost killed her. It was a part of this life, lying to people, bending the truth; we were all naturals at it now.

"Where are you?" Jesse's distress was strangely pleasing to hear, I couldn't get over how much it seemed to lighten the mood of the room; in an ironic sort of way.

Mum was glad to finally hear that someone genuinely cared, "La Push, Washington. She is safe here and welcome to stay as long as needed, but I felt that your family deserved to know."

"I would come see her but I... I can't but if you need anything then call me on this number. Also, could you remind Benny that I love her? She doesn't have the best interpersonal skills but she's a sweet girl, she doesn't deserve this."

"We know that. And it's nice to know that you've turned out all right, considering everything." I knew Mum was taking a cheap shot at Bennett and Jesse's mother, but I thought it was acceptable, given the circumstances.

Jesse sighed heavily, "Please, don't be like that. Bennett was well loved here, but my mother is a... high strung woman and they clashed. Dad's been around lately and that's been causing problems. She's actually a good mother, she fed us, clothed us and educated us. Bennett was never abused."

"Until three weeks ago." Leah snapped and then clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I don't know who that was but our mother never actually touched Bennett. Mum cares but... you wouldn't understand, but Mum does love Bennett. She just feels that Bennett is old enough to make her own way in life now." I was starting to lose some of my respect for Jesse. How can he defend his mother for what she's done?

"Well, let's just hope that you don't ever have to feel how Bennett is feeling now." Mum said, trying to diffuse this situation.

Jesse scoffed, "You think I don't have empathy for my sister? I wish that she never had to leave but there was nothing I could do, and she had Pippa. I promise that I'll be coming down to see her soon but don't think for a second that I don't feel for her."

"I'm not trying to question your love for your sister; it's obvious to me that you love her very much. We'll tell your sister that you are thinking of her and I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that you're planning on visiting." Mum was smiling broadly at the knowledge that Bennett did have someone.

There was silence for a second before Jesse sighed, "If anything happens, anything at all, you can call me on this number, Benny knows it off by heart. And could you please tell her to call me when she gets back. She owes me that at least."

"Of course I will, Jesse. And feel free to call us if you ever want to know anything or if you just want to talk to Bennett."

"Thank-you, Mrs Clearwater. I don't know if you realise how much it means to me, you helping my sister and all."

"It's our pleasure, Jesse. And I hope to see you soon."

Jesse took his time to reply, "Thank-you. I hope to be there soon."

And with that he hung up.

Mum sighed and turned away from the phone. She looked happier than she had when she got off the phone Bennett's mother. I knew that it was because she believed everyone deserved someone who loves them just for them; after everything she'd been through over the last few weeks, Bennett needed someone now more than ever. Mum was thankful that Jesse was a better brother than Kathleen was a mother.

"At least her brother's cool." Jake shrugged as he stood up, "I think it's time we got back on patrol, I'm sure Embry and Quil would like to be relieved."


	8. Oops

It was the middle of the day and the house was empty. Sue was at work and wasn't going to be back until late afternoon. I had been listening for the movement of the wolves around the township for a few hours and it finally sounded like they were all either far enough away or too busy with other things to hear what I was doing. I had to assume that they could hear at least as well as I could which made it risky for me to call my brother.

"Yo!" Jesse boomed down the phone as he answered. He'd never had good phone manners but hearing his voice made me smile, so I couldn't be annoyed with him.

I sighed gently before gathering myself to say something, "Hey, Jesse."

"Benny!" he sounded happy to hear from me and that made me smile wider, "I've been worried about you, why didn't you call me when you said you would?"

"It's not easy when you don't have access to a phone or any cash to use a payphone." I grumbled, I'd shredded my clothes and lost my phone and wallet when Mum had chased me off.

Jesse chuckled softly, "Well, you've called now. What's the go with that lady calling Mum?"

I wanted to defend Sue but I didn't really care that much about defending anyone. Mum was a bitch and she'd have to live with the annoyance of loving mothers judging her. Sue was nice to me when my mother wasn't, but she was still a stranger to me. Maybe if I knew her better than I would care more, but until then I didn't see the point in fighting for her honour.

"Sue's nice and she's really knowledgeable." One of the great things about having a paranoid mother was that we could talk to each other without making people suspicious; 'knowledgeable' was a code word for someone who knew about Shifters and/or vampires. There was also 'cat lovers' or 'cat people', people who knew what we were and 'dog lovers' or 'dog people', people who didn't know what we were, "I think she's a bit of a dog lover, though."

Jesse knew as well as I did that the uncertainty before the code word meant that there was a chance someone was listening to us, so he chose his words carefully, "But she's treating you right, right?" In other words, 'does she think you're human?'

"Of course, she's letting me stay with her. She's treating me almost like one of the family, it's weird." Code for 'someone in her family is a Shifter'.

There was silence on the other end of the phone as Jesse tried to comprehend what I was telling him. He gulped, "Weird how?"

Now it was my turn to find a way to explain things without giving away what we were talking about. I was sure that if someone was spying on me then they could tell that the conversation wasn't a normal one but my concern was more that they would know what was wrong.

"Well... things here are the total opposite of what they were at home. Like day and night." I hoped that he was able to figure out what I was saying.

When he spoke again I was relieved to find that he had, "Like cats and dogs?"

"Yeah, something like that." I mumbled.

Jesse almost yelled down the phone and turned the conversation in an entirely different direction, "So have they found Pippa?" I answered with a curt no and half a second later Jesse continued, "What happened?"

I knew that he wanted me to explain the situation and I figured that no one would think twice about me confessing my worries to my brother, "I... I think she was high or hallucinating. We were camping in the forest when she went to get some food. And when she came back, she started yelling at me about being trapped by vampires. It was crazy talk but she believed every little bit of it.

"I know it sounds crazy but I know what I saw. Sue tried to tell me that I was hallucinating because I'd eaten something toxic but I'm not stupid. Pippa is some sort of werecat or shape-shifter or something. One second she's Pippa and the next she's this giant cat. That was when she attacked me, I was lucky to get away from her."

"Pippa's a what?" Jesse feigned surprise but I knew that he'd heard everything that I'd been trying to tell him, "She thinks vampires are real and she can turn into a cat? I think I should come get you, it's not safe for you to be alone right now."

"No, I'm safe here. Sue won't let anything happen to me and there's a bunch of big tough men that have promised to protect me." I didn't want Jesse showing up now, he'd likely end up doing something really stupid and getting us both in a lot of trouble.

Jesse sighed into the receiver, "I want you back here, I miss you."

I nodded, even though I knew that Jesse couldn't see me, "I miss you too. But Mum doesn't want me there anymore and I like having my head firmly attached to my shoulders."

"You know that it's Dad's fault Mum chased you away right?" Part of me was offended that he was so determined to defend Mum for what she did, and to shift the blame to a father that we both knew was no good, was just a waste of breath.

I pushed aside my offence and tried not to show too much emotion as I continued, "Yeah, I figured as much, but it doesn't change what she did or what she said."

"Well, he's gone now. So she might welcome you back." Jesse sounded hopeful and I couldn't help but think his hope was ridiculously idiotic.

I wanted nothing more than to believe him, or to let him keep hoping, but I knew his hope wasn't going to help anyone, "I doubt it. Anyway, the damage is done; I know I'm not wanted."

"But I want you to come back." Jesse whined and his childish attitude was getting on my nerves.

The words left my mouth as a long monotonous sigh, "That's not enough."

"Well, when Mum gets rid of me, can I come find you?" It made me smiled to realise that he wasn't entirely blinded by his optimism.

"What makes you think that Mum is going to get rid of you?" To me it was hard to think that Mum would send him away, it seemed that she loved him better then she'd ever loved me.

Jesse sounded annoyed that I didn't believe him, "Because I'm not an idiot, I know why Dad showed up and I know why he's left again."

"And why's that?" I groaned, totally expecting some stupid reason like 'I'm an adult now'.

It turned out that he had two reasons, "Mum's pregnant again. She'll want me out of here before the next ones come and I think I'm ready to leave, it's not like I really need Mum anymore." Unfortunately, one reason was as stupid as 'I'm an adult now'.

But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like the idea of seeing my brother again, "Well, if you need somewhere to stay then La Push is not it. If it happens then I'll meet you in Vancouver; you know, somewhere with potential, somewhere we can just be another face in the crowd."

"I don't want to live in the city." He groaned and I felt my annoyance growing.

It was starting to get too much and I couldn't keep the anger out of my words, "I didn't _want_ to be attacked by my mother, but sometimes it doesn't matter what we want."

"Whoa, where did that come from?" Jesse was surprised by my hard words, "What happened to 'us against the world'? Why can't we find ourselves something in the countryside, like we'd always planned?"

"We haven't been planning anything for the last five years. It stopped being 'us against the world' when you started bringing girls home and forgot that I existed." I was getting more pissed off by the second, especially since Jesse was bringing up conversations and childish plans that we'd both given up on almost a decade ago.

"I never forgot about you. You're my sister, I love you."

The pain in Jesse's voice just wasn't enough to abate my growing rage, "That's why you stood there and watched, right? Because you loved me so much. Be honest with me, Jesse, once you figured out how to play with yourself, you didn't want my company."

"How can you say that?" Jesse was starting to get angry in return and his voice was loud and aggressive.

Our emotions were feeding off each other, the angrier I got, the angrier Jesse got and in turn it made me even more agitate, "Because that's what happened. You can't just expect me to pretend the last half dozen years never happened. How can I trust that you won't find some pretty little thing and forget me all over again?"

"Could you be any more of a hypocrite? What about Pippa? One day you're my awkward little sister and the next you're gallivanting around the U.S. with her. At least I was always here if you needed me." I knew that he was trying to say, it seemed that my animal self had taken on a new name. He was angry that I had come to the U.S., angry that I had left him.

"I wouldn't be 'gallivanting' anywhere if you'd even tried to stop Mum."

"The woman's pregnant! What was I supposed to do? Physically restrain her? Hit her? I sure as hell can't leave her, because we both know Dad is useless. So what did you want me to do?"

"Right now, I want you to hang up."

"Fine with me!" He yelled down the phone, I could tell that he'd moved it from his ear so that he could press the disconnect button as quickly as possible.

The second I'd said the words, I regretted them. And Jesse's response had hurt. I didn't want him to be angry with me; I hadn't wanted to be angry with him either but somehow we'd gotten there. At the time it had made so much sense, he'd been so rude and immature, but now it all seemed so stupid. I was feeling stupid.

I felt numb. My skin was cold and my head was spinning. The dial tone was blaring in my ear but I couldn't bring myself to lower the phone. It was a painful reminder of what I'd just done, and it felt like one that I deserved to suffer through. In my own disregard for my brother, I had successfully disconnected myself from my past. I had nothing now to keep me afloat, except my own natural desire to survive.

But I didn't want to just survive. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to be comfortable. I didn't want to feel isolated from everything that I knew and loved. I didn't want to be alone. But I'd said it myself, sometimes it doesn't matter what we want.

There was a knock at the front door and it took me a few seconds to register what was going on. It took me a little while to gather my wits and haul myself up off the cushy bed. With a crutch under my right arm and the phone, still sounding the ominous dial tone, in my left hand, I hobbled to the door.

As I stopped by the door I looked down at the phone. The display showed the seconds ticking away. My chest ached at the sight of the numbers climbing, with every second that passed the knowledge of what I'd done was settling in and I couldn't believe that I'd been so stupid. It was almost physically painful to hang up the phone.

I pulled open the door without asking who was there. The vampires weren't allowed on the reservation so they were no threat. And I knew enough about Shifters to know that I could hold my own against one of those pooches. When I registered who it was, I knew that I'd been justified in my assumption.

Brady was smiling at me and I forgot all my insecurities about my last conversation with my brother, so that I could remember all my insecurities about my feelings for the handsome man. It seemed that all Brady had to do was stand in front of me and my mind and body started losing control. It really wasn't fair that he did this to me, when I seemed to have no effect on him.

He smiled at me and my knees started to feel like they weren't strong enough to hold me up. It didn't make sense, that someone else's smile would make my knees weak. Where was the logic in that? Was this what other girls felt when they saw someone they were attracted to? Did other girls think said attractive guy smelt bad and good at the same time? I was really starting to dislike this guy, but only in as much as I liked him more than I cared to admit.

"I was just walking past and I thought I heard you yelling. Are you okay?" his voice was so delectable, especially when he was showing concern for me.

I nodded and mumbled, "Yeah. Do you want to come in?"

"I'd love to." He sounded happy at being invited in but I couldn't help but think he was only here because Sam had asked him to check up on me.

We made our way to the living room and I fell onto the couch, next to the phone dock. As I put the phone away, Brady sat down beside me. That made me blush a little and I was glad that I was looking away from him so that he couldn't see my embarrassment. He could have sat anywhere and he chose to sit beside me. I wondered if it was a sign.

"I'm guessing that you called your brother." Brady said as he leant back into the plush couch.

I sighed, "I've got no one else that wants to talk to me."

I jumped a little when I felt Brady's large hand wrap around mine. I turned to him as I fought back tears, I'd never cried in front of anyone before and I wasn't going to start now.

He gave me a meek smile, "We'll find Pippa, I promise."

Shaking my head slightly, I replied, "I don't think I want you to."

This surprised Brady and he moved away from me to get a good view of all of me, "You don't mean that."

"I do. She brought me here. She attacked me. She left me. Why should I want her back?" I didn't know exactly where this was coming from but I kind of liked it. It was giving me a chance to rid myself of the imaginary woman that I'd created.

Panic flared in Brady's eyes and I got the feeling that I knew why he was scared, "I thought we'd established that you were hallucinating?" That confirmed my theory; he was worried that I believed there were Shifters.

"No. Sue thought that was the case but I know what I saw and I know that I wasn't imagining it. And I know that I was bitten, a hallucination couldn't break my leg."

Brady was still trying to think of a way to get me to reconsider the hallucination theory but I would not let that happen. I had to reduce the number of lies that were being thrown around and this was the best way to do that, one small step at a time.

"Did you mention it to your brother?"

I sighed, "He thinks I need help but I'm not crazy. I don't mind if you don't believe me, it's not like I have high hopes for my social life at the moment."

Without warning, Brady's arms were around my shoulders and he was pulling me into his chest. His body was deliciously warm and firm, I'd never felt so comfortable with another person. I wanted nothing more than to stay like this forever, or at least until our combined body heat got too much for us. After a few minutes Brady started to pull away and I have no idea what came over me.

It all happened so fast that I didn't realise what I was doing until I was doing it. In my moment of disregard I had forgotten about all the lies that I'd been telling; well, it wasn't so much that I forgot but rather that I didn't care enough to remember or think about them. Before he could put too much distance between us, I reached up and took a hold of his face.

And I kissed him.


	9. Stupid

I couldn't believe what I'd done. It was probably the stupidest thing that I'd ever let happen. In eighteen years I had never felt like this and I gave into it without a second thought. How could I be so careless?

I pushed Brady away and stumbled to my feet. At least I was able to remember that my leg was supposed to be broken. I hopped out of the room, leaving my crutch behind, and down the hall to 'my' bedroom. Stupid didn't even begin to cover how I was feeling.

Everything was ruined now. They all thought that I was a lesbian, why the hell would I kiss Brady? I was fairly sure that I couldn't claim that I thought he was a chick; it was insanely obvious that he wasn't. How was I going to get out of this one?

I'd have to leave. It wouldn't matter if they figured out what I was because I couldn't stay anymore. Once everyone found out that I wasn't gay, they were bound to start asking questions. And once they started questioning my sexuality, they would question everything else that I had told them. As much as I liked to think they were oblivious, I knew they weren't that stupid. They weren't as stupid as I was.

The pull of the heavy cast on my foot caught my attention. It was why I hadn't phased over the last couple of days, because phasing would shatter the cast and I had no way of rebuilding it if that happened. Now it didn't matter about breaking the cast, and its weight seemed unnecessary.

There was a knock at the door and I froze on the bed. I didn't know what to say to him. I didn't have anything to say to him. So I chose to stay silent, hoping that he would take my silence as a sign that I wanted him to leave.

Brady didn't seem to register the meaning behind my silence, "Bennett. Can I please come in?"

Still, I said nothing. It seemed like the most reasonable response to my current predicament. As long as I didn't open my mouth then I couldn't get myself in anymore trouble. I couldn't get over how careless and stupid I had been.

There wasn't a single thing in this world more stupid than kissing Brady, except blurting out the whole truth. Or maybe blurting out the truth in front of the whole pack, or in front of the vampires. Or I could try to kiss everyone in the pack. Or I could- no, me kissing any of the vampires was about as likely as me growing a penis.

So there were worse things that could happen but this was still high on the list; mainly because I didn't know how to back track. How do you take back a kiss? How do I convince them that I'm gay, when I'm actually not? Especially now that I've made a move on a male member of their pack?

I didn't get much of a chance to figure it all out because Brady decided to ignore my silence. He opened the door and walked straight in, looking both serious and confused. His expression made me feel bad and he didn't have the right to make me feel bad, seeing how it was at least half his fault that I'd done what I'd done.

I'd wear most of the blame, it was my careless action that caused the problem but I still felt like blaming him. If he weren't so damn appealing then I wouldn't have been so tempted. If he weren't so damn nice then I wouldn't like him. If he hadn't come around today, at the very moment that I needed someone to lean on, then I wouldn't have had a chance to stuff things up so royally. It might not be technically right, but I was still going to force some of the responsibility onto Brady.

He sat down on the corner of the bed, furthest from where I had thrown myself. I could feel his eyes on me but I refused to actually look him in the face. Only God knew what I'd do if I made the mistake of looking at him again. Instead, I focused my eyes on the wall behind him for a second, before moving my head and staring at the ceiling.

"Can we at least talk about what just happened?" Brady asked gently.

My eyes remained glued to the white ceiling; if I looked at him I was sure that I would lose all composure. The last thing I needed was to be crying in front of him. Or throwing myself at him again, especially now that we were in a bedroom together and no one was near enough to walk in on us. I cursed how deserted this part of the town was during the day.

Brady took a deep breath and continued, "I'm sorry for just barging in here but I really do think that we need to talk about it. Whatever it is that you think you feel, I think you should sleep on it until we find Pippa. You don't know how you'll feel when she gets back; you don't know her reasons for not being here."

I shook my head, "I know enough."

The mattress tilted under my hips and I had to work a little to stop from rolling towards Brady. From the corner of my eye, I could see Brady move to sit cross legged at the foot of the bed, facing toward me. It was clear that he had no intention of ending this anytime soon and I cringed at the thought that he had something else to say.

"Let's be frank. You've been through a lot these last couple of days; it's understandable that you're not thinking quite straight. I'm not upset with you and I'm not judging you. But I am wondering why you did it."

That was the question of the century. Why had I kissed Brady? In all my life I had never been so reckless. I had never felt the _need_ for another human being or for intimacy. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been curious as to what others found so enticing about it but I had never been inclined to actually try to find out. As far as I was concerned, it was something that teenagers did when they felt lonely or when they were bored; it wasn't something that I was drawn to. I had been happy spending my days in Elk Falls, just wandering around all on my lonesome.

So what was it about Brady that I found so irresistible? What did he have that none of my brother's friends had? What did he have that every other guy that I'd ever met before, didn't have? He was handsome but I'd seen other handsome guys, and ones that didn't have the persistent hint of wet dog that Brady had. There was really nothing spectacular about him but I was willing to put my health and safety in jeopardy for a fleeting kiss.

I had no idea why I did it, but I wasn't going to tell Brady that. In fact, I wasn't going to tell Brady anything. I would shut down the tiny part of me that was social and eventually he will just give up and leave. Surely, he wasn't desperate or bored enough to sit in a room with a moody and unresponsive girl. He had to have better things to do then this.

It seemed that I was wrong because after a few minutes of awkward silence, he kept talking, "It's not that I didn't like it, it was a lovely kiss but... you have a girlfriend. Those sorts of interactions are inappropriate. Especially seeing that Pippa is out there and probably worried sick about you."

"I bet you she's not." I muttered to myself.

Every time I spoke to any of these people I felt really bad about lying to them, and this wasn't helping things. If Pippa was the only reason that Brady wouldn't kiss me then I felt extra ripped off by the fact that she didn't exist. But I didn't have any real choice, I had to keep pretending that she didn't exist; the alternative was worse than them thinking I was a little bit of a slut. At least to me it was.

I could live with them thinking that I'd given up on my relationship with Pippa. I could live with them thinking that I was promiscuous. It sounded strange, even to me, but somehow my lack of commitment was less of a concern then my lack of honesty. If they knew that I was lying to them then I was sure that I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

"Why would you say that? Did she not leave her family behind too, just so you could be together? Has she not supported you against your mother's homophobia?" Brady pressed and I felt the urge to tell him, that I was lying, growing. At the same time the urge to keep face around him was building and it was persistently stronger than the desire to come clean.

It was disturbingly easy to keep this lie going, "Look what she did to me." I gestured to my leg without looking away from the ceiling, "And I know that she did it. I don't know how but I know that I wasn't hallucinating. She got angry at me and she attacked me. You don't do that to someone that you love, you just don't."

"If I said that I believed you, that I think she may have turned into a cat, would you consider the possibility that she didn't mean to attack you? Do you think that maybe she lost control for a split second and that maybe, just maybe, she is too ashamed to show her face again?"

It was hard to resist the urge to look at Brady but I did, "No. I wouldn't consider that because I'm certain that's not what it was. She didn't just get angry and lunge at me. She chased me through the forest, she had time to realise what she was doing was wrong and she didn't. And it's not like she just bit me, she scratched up my clothes, she tore my cheek open. It wasn't a split second, it was a good minute of her trying to kill me.

"So why would I want you to find her? Why would I ever want to see her again?" As I finished I felt a single tear roll down my cheek and knew that Brady could see it. I don't think I'd ever been such a convincing liar before, but it was all falling perfectly into place.

Brady sighed, "Just because she was angry doesn't mean that she wanted to kill you."

This time I gave in, I turned to Brady, "If I were a woman from this town and Pippa were my perfectly normal human boyfriend, who had beaten me so badly that it broke my bones, would you still be defending her like this?"

He appeared to give it some thought and watched me the whole time. His gaze travelling from the gauze on my cheek, over the little bruises and scratches that littered my bare arms, to the thick cast that encased my right leg. A frown pulled at the corners of his beautiful mouth and it was clear that I'd convinced him that Pippa wasn't just some innocent woman who had made a mistake. Maybe I was going to be able to fix this after all.

Brady shook his head, "No. I'd tell you to leave her and to call the police, but I can assure you that they won't believe that Pippa turned into a cat." I was starting to get annoyed at being called a cat; I wasn't a cat, I was a leopard, there was a big difference. He didn't seem to notice my annoyance, "But I still don't entirely understand why you did what you did. It's just... I didn't think I was your type."

"You think that because I ran away with Pippa, I can't want to kiss you?"

He smiled at me and butterflies filled my stomach, "Well, yeah. I thought you only liked women and I hate to break it to you but I'm most definitely male."

I huffed a laugh, "Sexuality is more complicated than that. Growing up I never thought of myself as being gay. But Pippa understood me and I understood her. It wasn't like love at first sight, we just kind of grew on each other. She loved me when it seemed that no one else did. And when my mother sent me away, Pippa was there for me. She'd never had a girlfriend before me. It sort of just happened."

"So, you've had boyfriends before?" there was a strange twinkle in Brady's eyes and it made me a little wary.

But I was sick of lying so I figured the truth wouldn't hurt, "No. Let's just say that I wasn't particularly popular at high school. Most of the guys didn't know that I existed and those that did were my brother's annoying dipshit friends. And there was no way that I was going to go near any of them."

Brady laughed, "That's their loss then. But I really think that you should wait to talk to Pippa before you start anything else with anyone else."

"No." I sighed as I shook my head, "I don't want to talk to Pippa. I don't want to see her ever again. As far as I'm concerned, we're over and there is no need to see or talk to her ever again."

He moved closer to me and took my hand in his. I couldn't get over just how big they were, and warm too. It seemed that his hands were slightly warmer than the normal human's, I had to put this down to him being a Shifter because I knew that my body temperature was slightly higher than a humans, although it seemed not as high as Brady's.

"I think that Pippa should know this first. It wouldn't be fair for you to move on when she thinks there is still something there."

I continued to shake my head, "She must know that I'm here but she hasn't made the smallest attempt at apologising or even talking to me. No, if she cared about what we had then she would have shown up by now. Anyway, attempted murder is a little less forgivable then not officially ending a relationship in which one person tried to kill the other."

Brady had a marvellous laugh and it softened my resistance every time I heard it, "You've got a point there. But I think you should take some time to get past your current emotions."

"Are you trying to tell me not to kiss you again? Because the ball is really in your court now so it's all up to you." I have no idea why I said that but I was giving my brain free reign over everything at the moment, because if I didn't then I'd be too scared to say anything to him at all.

But I wasn't sure whether I was happy with his response or not. It was one thing for me to forget myself and kiss a guy when I was pretending to be gay. It was an entirely different thing for a guy who thought I was gay, or at least emotional over the loss of my girlfriend, to kiss me.

While I did enjoy the feeling of his lips against mine and his large hand holding my neck as he leaned over me, I couldn't shift the feeling that this was not going to end well. Particularly for Brady who was supposed to be the unemotional and responsible one, of the two of us.


	10. Liar

Brady's POV

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Brady!" Sam sighed as he dropped his head into his hands.

Paul wasn't quite as gentle in his response, as he yelled, "What the fuck were you thinking? _Were_ you thinking?"

Ever since Paul had managed to get his shit together he'd been even less accepting of other people's mistakes. I understood his annoyance, as he has been living happily in Aberdeen with Rachel for the last year and now because of Pippa, he'd been dragged back into the life he was trying to get away from. It wasn't that he didn't like being a Shifter or being part of the pack, but his devotion to Rachel was stronger and all he wanted was to be with her, somewhere where they could both be happy and normal. Or as normal as a Shifter can ever be.

I had chosen to tell Sam what had happened before I phased and everyone found it. That always seemed to be the worst way for us to hear things as no one had time to really think things through and our first instinctive reactions were occasionally quite hurtful. It was unfortunate that it was Jared on patrol and not Paul but it couldn't be avoided.

"Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do but..."

Paul cut me off, "Maybe?! Maybe is wasn't the right thing to do? Of course it's not the right thing to do. The girl was assaulted by her lover and you think that means it's a good idea to throw yourself at her. No reasonable man would ever expect someone going through what Bennett's going through to be able to make rational choices. You should have left her alone."

"Paul's right." Sam sighed, "After she kissed you, you should have come and got someone else to talk to her."

I was annoyed that this seemed to be based on me making a mistake, not that I thought kissing Bennett was a mistake, but it felt like there were more pressing issues at play here. Pippa was gone from our lands, we all knew it, and Bennett didn't want us looking for her any more. The way I saw it, it was time to let things go. Let Paul get back to Rachel and let the pack ease off looking for a Shifter who was long gone by now.

If Pippa wanted Bennett as much as everyone was willing to believe then she'd have come back by now. And to be honest, I was glad that she hadn't.

Ever since I'd met Bennett, I'd been attracted to her. I knew that I hadn't imprinted but there was no guarantee that any of us would, so I wasn't going to let the threat of imprinting ruin a chance with someone that I genuinely liked. I knew that Bennett was emotional at the moment and part of me was upset that things had started the way they had but I refused to give it up because of unfortunate circumstances.

"I didn't go in there thinking that things would happen the way they did. My intentions were not sleazy or irresponsible." I was trying to defend myself but I knew that it wasn't going well.

"We do not doubt that your intentions were pure. Your intentions are not being questioned here. It's your actions that have caused problems." Sam wasn't looking at me, he was staring at the cornice and thinking things through, "What exactly did she say? Before and after... you did what you did."

"Well, before she kissed me, she said that her brother thought she was crazy. I just wanted to comfort her so I hugged her. Then she kissed me."

"Did you even try to stop her?" Paul snapped at me and I realised that I'd forgotten he was even here.

That question was one that I hadn't wanted to be asked. The truth was that I hadn't stopped that kiss. I knew what she was doing the second she started reaching towards my face, it may only have been a second between not kissing and kissing, but I'd been aware of what was happening and had chosen not to stop her.

Why would I? She was beautiful and she had needed someone to support her. Maybe the support I was offering wasn't what other people thought was appropriate but I didn't really see the problem with it. I wasn't forcing her into anything; I was leaving it all up to her. If she turned around tomorrow and said she never wanted to see me again then I would respect that and stay out of her way.

But that's not what she'd said. She hadn't acted like she wanted me out of her life, at all. She had initiated the first kiss and I'd been careful to make sure that I wasn't overpowering her when I kissed her the second time around, so that she could turn me down if she wanted. Bennett had wanted me to kiss her, I know she had and she had enjoyed the whole thing.

I looked Paul in the eye, "No. Maybe I should have but I didn't."

"Maybe?" Paul growled, "Stop with the maybes! There's no fucking maybe. When a lesbian tries to kiss you then you know that it's not a rational decision."

This made me angry; Paul hadn't been there, he didn't know what he was talking about, "You don't know Bennett, don't judge what happened because you think you do."

Paul glared at me but it was Sam who spoke, "What don't we know about Bennett that you think we should."

I took a deep breath and explained the conversation that played out before I'd kissed Bennett. I stopped at that point because I figured that they didn't want or need that visual in their heads. The memory of it made me smile and I could tell by the faces they pulled that they knew what I was smiling about.

Being a Shifter was often quite helpful. Not only was I strong and athletic without needing to try to be but I had a perfect memory. I could recall every word that Bennett had said, exactly as she'd said it. It also meant that I could remember every action, every touch. How could I ever dislike something that gave me the ability to remember all those beautiful things?

"So... she's not actually gay?" Paul seemed to be struggling with this concept but it had seemed to stop them from yelling at me.

I groaned, "Pippa is the only girlfriend that she's ever had and she is attracted to guys so... I don't know. Mayb- perhaps bisexual would be more appropriate."

Sam didn't like this. He was under the impression that Bennett was gay and was more than just a little confused at the moment. I had to admit that it was a possibility. Pippa's actions were surely enough to confuse any loving partner. Sam's resistance to accept Bennett's potential bisexuality made me hesitant to mention that she believed that Shifters were real.

Then again, maybe I was more willing to believe she was bisexual because I wanted her to be bisexual. I wanted her to want to kiss me again. I couldn't lie, I really liked Bennett and I was enjoying the idea that she liked me too. There was something about her that made her so much more appealing than the other women around here. There was a mysterious and slightly foreign air to her presence that I found intoxicating.

Her round face and gentle cheekbones gave her a look of eternal youthfulness, she was eighteen years old but no one would blame you for thinking she was still in her early teens. She had pale amber eyes that reminded me of my sister's old tabby because they were so large and their colour was so smooth and even. All her features were broad and soft, and it made her strangely unremarkable and yet absolutely stunning. Combined with her spiky mahogany pixie bob, she was the personification of cute.

It was hard to think that anyone would ever want to hurt her. I, for one, couldn't bear to see her hurting and I hated the sight of the heavy cast that weighed down her leg. She seemed not to notice it much anymore and I wondered whether it was because she had a high pain threshold or was just a really good actor. Either way, I wanted it off of her.

"Is there anything else?" Sam grumbled and watched me carefully, clearly expecting me to try to lie.

I nodded, "Just one other thing." Paul cocked his head and I could tell that he was demanding that I hurry up and spit it out, "She doesn't believe Sue anymore."

"What do you mean?" Sam sounded tired and I wondered whether it was exhaustion at this conversation or the hours of patrolling that everyone was doing nowadays.

"She doesn't think she was hallucinating. She believes that Pippa is a Shifter and refuses to consider any other explanation."

The annoyance was evident on Sam's face as he slumped forward in his chair. He pressed his forehead to the table and breathed out heavily. Everyone was starting to feel the drain of constant patrols and none more so than Sam. He was out there more than anyone else and I was surprised that he hadn't passed out from sleep deprivation yet.

I wanted to reach out and comfort Sam but there was nothing that I could do. I'd already caused him my fair share of strife and I got the feeling that trying to comfort Sam would do more harm than good. He would probably take my attempts at comfort as an attempt to get myself out of trouble.

"Are you sure she can't be convinced otherwise?" It was Paul who asked, as it seemed Sam had had enough. Paul recognised this and was willing to put his anger aside so as not to exacerbate the problem.

"Unfortunately, yes. She mentioned it to her brother and he told her she was crazy, but she's certain of it still. If she's not going to reconsider for her brother than I doubt she'd do it for us."

Sam pushed away from the table and his chair screeched across the tiles. There was a strong and determined look on his face, almost as if he was trying to show up the exhaustion that was settling on his shoulders. It was nice to see that our alpha was not going to let one little cat get under his skin.

He took a deep breath and said, with impressive certainty, "Then we tell her the truth."

Both Paul and I nearly fell off our seats. He couldn't be serious. This was something that we kept guarded from just about everyone, even our own people. The idea that we would just open up to an outsider was idiotic at best. The only other person to know without reason was Bella Swan and that had not ended well, by any standard.

Paul's anger started to flare again. He'd been trying to hold back before but this was too much for him. He bellowed at Sam, "You've got to be fucking kidding me! We're just going to let a stranger in on our most crucial secret? Have you gone mad?"

"No." Sam said simply before taking a few moments to get his words straight in his head, "If she thinks that Shifters are real, then why hide it from her? It seems like a lot of work for no reason. We'll explain to her that we can keep Pippa away if that's what she wants, maybe the threat against her girlfriend will be enough to get her to see straight about kissing Brady. It'll kill two birds with one stone."

I was numbed by anxiety. It wasn't everyday that your Alpha suggested such ridiculous things. And, believe it or not, it wasn't often that Paul fought with Sam. Normally, no one fought against Sam. It wasn't just strange to have someone fight against him, but for him to not demand respect from said individual was almost unheard of.

"No." Paul growled, "It's too dangerous. Who knows how she will really react when faced with a giant wolf? She's still fucked up from seeing a giant cat, do you really think telling her that we're monsters is going to help her?"

Sam wasn't looking at Paul, he seemed too energised by his idea to stop and listen to reason, "She should know. Her girlfriend is a Shifter and we can't explain things to her without telling her what we are. She won't believe that we know what we're talking about unless she knows that we're like Pippa."

I couldn't hold my tongue any longer, "I agree with Paul. Bennett is too unstable at the moment, we should at least give her a few weeks to come to terms with what has already happened."

Sam glared at me, "I don't know what to think of your opinion at the moment. You kissed someone that you now claim is too unstable to learn the truth. So what do you think I should do? Believe that she's too unstable or believe that you're the sort of arsehole that preys on weak women that don't know whether to consent or not."

That felt a little low. I had thought that I'd explained why I had done what I'd done. Sure, it wasn't the ideal situation for a kiss but I hadn't been preying on Bennett. She was the one that kissed me first; I hadn't asked or even hinted that I wanted her to do it. I'd liked it but I hadn't asked for it. To suggest that I was some sort of sexual deviant, which was how it sounded to me, was plain harsh.

For the first time, in a long time, I was glad for Paul's presence, "That was a little cruel. Brady might not make the best choices but he's not the sort of person that would force themselves on someone." It wasn't entirely a compliment but it was the closest I'd ever gotten from Paul.

Sam shrunk back into his chair, "Fine. We'll give her a couple more weeks and see how she handles everything. But we are going to tell her, she deserves to know the truth.

"Pippa dragged her over the border, to unknown lands and then just left her. No, not just left her, but attacked and left her. I hated myself for what I did to Emily but I knew that I couldn't leave her, Pippa didn't seem to care enough to even hesitate in leaving. Bennett deserves some sort of answer for all she's been through."

I couldn't disagree with Sam. Bennett needed Pippa more now than ever before and Pippa had just up and left. Bennett had said it, you just don't do that to someone you love. You swallowed your own pride and you go through hell to make sure that they are okay. Anything less is not love and love was what Bennett deserved.

Maybe I hadn't imprinted on Bennett but I wanted to give her that. I wanted to show her that some of us like her for who she is. I didn't know her well but I knew that she was the sort of person that I could easily love. It wasn't just that she was pretty, but also that she was strong. Anyone who had been through what she had been through over the last couple of months and was still able to smile had to be strong.

Still, I worried how she would take to finding out that I was lying to her too. In fact, that was my main reason for her not finding out. She had a homophobic mother, abusive girlfriend and neglectful brother, she didn't need a lying... friend... boyfriend... I'm not sure which I was or which I really wanted to be, but either way, she didn't need a liar befriending her as well.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Could you guys please review and tell me what you think?**_

_**I'm not sure whether things are going at the right pace so your opinions would be greatly appreciated.**_


	11. Pippa

Author's Note:

In response to a review by 'Guest', I feel that maybe I should point out that I haven't actually said that Bennett imprints on anyone. As it stands she doesn't even know what imprinting is as it doesn't happen in her 'species'. I don't see why the wolves _have_ to imprint on people, is love not enough?

Anyway, on with the story...

It had been a week since I'd kissed Brady and he'd kissed me. I knew that he'd told a couple of people but if they were upset with me then they were keeping it well hidden. Despite my polite treatment, I was still ready to leave at a moment's notice; although I was going to let things go until I had no other choice.

I had started spending my days outside again. I hadn't realised how much I disliked being cooped up until I was back in the forest, surrounded by the most familiar thing around here. The forest was incredibly similar to what I'd grown up with, some of the species were different but aesthetically it was more than effective at holding the homesickness at bay. All that the forest needed was the faint echo of a waterfall and I would never feel the sickening edge of being so far from the scenery of my childhood.

How it was that I could miss a place that was entirely my mother's and entirely off limits was beyond me but I did. Elk Falls had always and would always be my mother's land. Jesse and I were raised knowing that one day she would want us to leave but it had still stung to know that she was willing to kill me to get me to leave. I hoped that Jesse would leave before he had to feel that horrid rejection, I may have been pissed at him but I didn't want him hurt in any way and there was no chance that she'd let him stay forever. We had long ago learnt that the only way we could stay in Elk Falls was to take the land by force. And neither of us would be so stupid as to do that.

Mum was almost eighty years old; she was nineteen when she took ownership of Elk Falls in 1952. She'd lived there for sixty-one years and had never been even slightly at risk of losing her land. Shifters of our sort weren't common in North America and we tended to not be on the radar of any other Shifters, so there was never anyone to threaten Mum for her land. The only Shifter we ever saw on an even slightly regular basis was a thickset male who never hesitated in running off when Mum started to show the slightest sign of aggression. This didn't mean that there weren't more around, just that Mum knew how to keep possession of that which was dearest to her.

Jesse and I were born in one of the most secluded parts of Mum's territory, far enough from the border to avoid the neighbouring predators and far enough from roads and frequented camping and hiking areas to keep us safe from humans. As Mum had given birth to us while she was in leopard form, we had been shifting from before we could walk. Shifting was so familiar to both of us that we often forgot that other people couldn't do it. We aged at a normal rate until we were about ten, at which point we went from pre-teen to apparent sixteen-year-olds in a single year; as a result, Mum had to keep us hidden from birth until we caught up with our bodies. She was in hiding herself because she'd started to attract attention. She hadn't aged like all her friends, so she faked her death just after she conceived us.

There was one other Shifter that we'd met as children; apart from the male that didn't seem to understand that Elk Falls was Mum's land. We'd been young, very young at the time, just six years old, and were playing near the South-West boundary of Mum's territory. The Shifter had been in leopard form, just like we were, and it was clear that she knew who our mother was the moment she saw us because she made sure to keep her distance. She was a small Shifter, her shoulders measuring a good five inches shorter than mine and I was average at best. Her fur was darker than either of ours, darker even then our mother's, and her teeth were absolutely massive, larger than mine are now.

Despite her fearsome appearance she had not threatened us and Mum had not been concerned when she found us playing so close to an unknown Shifter that we'd never seen before and never saw again. It had seemed that she'd liked us and I could tell by the sparkle in her eyes that she enjoyed watching us play. Then I hadn't thought much of it but now I think that it was her maternal instinct shining through.

Mum only came out of the wood works when Jesse and I were fourteen years old. We were lucky for our genetics because both of us had young looking faces, so even though our bodies looked older, our faces still looked like the average fourteen year old. With the right makeup I can still pull off fifteen. It was good for us because it meant we could go into school with people around our age.

Over our four years of government education it became clear that I was more leopard than Jesse was. Jesse was overly trusting and made friends as easy as breathing. He didn't need to try to fit in with the other students and they all loved him. I envied him for it but now I was glad that I didn't have the friends he had. It would have made leaving a lot harder. Although, now that I'd had a taste of what friendship was, I couldn't help but feel that I had missed out.

I couldn't help but feel that La Push might be the place that I would settle down in, as my mother had in Elk Falls, although I knew that I shouldn't be thinking this way about a place already occupied by wolves. Ideally I would have had a territory that shared a border with my mother's but all that land was taken and the only place for me to go was off Vancouver Island. I'd figured that if I had to leave then I may as well make the best of it and find somewhere well away from my mother.

La Push fit that to the T. It reminded me of home, even though it certainly wasn't. There were no other feline Shifters in the area and with a little schmoozing I should be able to convince the wolves to let me stay. That was when I finally got around to telling them what I was.

My thoughts of settling down interrupted, I froze on the spot. I'd been hopping my way along one of the paths when I came across something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Someone unfamiliar was around. It wasn't one of the wolves and it wasn't a vampire. But the smell was still bone chilling.

It was a Shifter. A female Shifter. A female feline Shifter.

Before long she was standing before me, her ears laid flat back against her neck as she examined me. The first thing that I noticed about her was that she was substantially lighter than I was, being a washed out sandy colour under her large black and grey rosettes. Inside her rosettes she showed greying of her coat but no additional little spots like I had. She was a Clouded Leopard but she was in no way related to me.

Hanging from her mouth was a bag filled with what looked like scraps of cloth, but I assumed they were clothes. She let out a low warning growl around the bag, but I knew it was not a threat. Still, I stared her down, my heart thumping hard in my chest. My natural distrust in everyone meant that I couldn't let my guard down around her and while my guard was up, I couldn't possibly figure out why she was here. It wasn't easy to think about intentions when you're so focused on the actions.

After a few long moments she phased and changed into some very revealing day clothes. Showing herself to be a very beautiful woman of Chinese descent. She had flawless, creamy skin and startlingly dark eyes that shone from her pale face. She was taller than me but at least one size smaller, it was almost as if someone had grabbed her feet and shoulders and stretched her out. She had the sort of beauty that I could only dream of and I instantly envied her for it.

"Bennett?" she asked with a distinctive Southern accent, it was a strange combination, her exotic appearance and her hillbilly accent. I nodded carefully and waited for her response, "I'm so sorry for what happened. I never meant to hurt you."

I'd never met this woman before, so why would she be sorry for hurting me? I'd have remembered meeting someone like this woman, how could anyone forget someone so gorgeous?

She frowned at me, "It's me, Pippa. Do you not remember me?"

I recoiled from her. What the hell was going on? Pippa wasn't real, she was a figment of my imagination. She couldn't possibly be standing in front of me, talking to me like she was her own being. She wasn't real.

Someone came rushing towards me and I flinched away from them. It was Brady, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. He was breathing hard and his muscles were twitching from use, he'd either been chasing 'Pippa' or he'd caught her scent and freaked out. He put himself between me and the stranger, his arm stretched out behind him in a protective gesture.

"Who are you?" Brady demanded and I found myself wanting to know exactly the same.

The attractive stranger flashed a fleeting smile before answering, "Phillipa Kam, I'm Bennett's girlfriend."

Brady scoffed, "I don't think you deserve to call yourself that."

She seemed to get rather angry at this and stepped forward with stiff shoulders, "Who are you to talk to me like that? You pathetic little mutt."

So my disdain for Brady and his fellow Shifters seemed to be universal amongst my kind. I had started to get used to it, although I was far from liking that part of them. In a strange way, I liked the wolf pack of La Push more than I liked my family at the moment. And I definitely liked them better than this stranger, who meant less than nothing to me.

I wondered if she had been informed of everything by whoever it was that had sent her. That was my biggest question. I no longer cared who she was, she was insignificant to me. The person who sent her was the one that I wanted to talk to.

In my head I had been through the options, there was my mother and my brother, no one else knew or cared that I was here. My mother didn't know about the details of my lies, namely the fact that Phillip had become Phillipa, but there was the slight chance that Jesse had brought it up and Mum had found it in herself to try to help me. The more likely culprit was Jesse but he didn't know this woman, I was sure of that.

Brady growled low in his throat, "You're not welcome here."

"I'd love to leave, it's disgusting that you could tolerate those leeches. Unfortunately, _they_ don't want me to leave and I'm not going without Bennett." the stranger snarled, I refused to call her Pippa because she wasn't Pippa. Pippa was an imaginary woman and there was no way that she was standing in front of me now.

I felt Brady's large warm hand wrap around my shoulder and my attention flashed back to him. He looked scared, at least that's what I thought he was portraying. His shoulders were tense but they shook as his hand gripped me a little too firmly for a human to withstand.

I reached up to pry at his fingers, "Brady, you're hurting me." He turned towards me, eyes wide and frantically searching my face and body for bruises or marks. He was definitely scared and it confused me, "I'm fine. I promise."

"This is all really sweet but I would like to have a word with my girlfriend. In private."

Brady was shaking his head but he wasn't the one that answered, "After what you did last time, why would we let you?"

It was Sam and he was backed by almost the entire pack. Although none were in wolf form, they were clearly trying to threaten the stranger but I got the feeling that she didn't intimidate easily. Even with eight large, muscular men bearing down on her, she didn't flinch. I would have flinched, at least I would have if my two feet were planted on the ground; get me in the trees and out of their reach and I would happily stare them down.

"Because it's not your choice." she snapped before turning to me, "Please, Bennett. Let me explain."

Every head turned to me and I felt a sudden pressure to make the right decision. It was so heavy and strong that it was almost like a physical entity had taken refuge on my shoulders and wasn't going to move until I said something. I wanted to tell the stranger to go away, to get rid of 'Pippa' once and for all but I couldn't. My curiosity and desire to know who had sent her was too much. I couldn't not find out.

I nodded my head, "But you only get this one chance, afterwards you leave me alone."

"Very well then. I've got an ATV stashed around here, but I don't want anyone following me." I nodded my agreement with this and the stranger bowed her head.

She turned and made her way into the forest. I was motionless for a moment, wondering if I should actually go with her. She was supposed to be my long term girlfriend; I should want to trust her. I took a deep breath and followed her to the ATV that was hidden amongst a thick stand of trees; how anyone had gotten it in here I had no idea.

After a few minutes we were out of the La Push territory. It was liberating to know that I was free of the forest that I'd been trapped in for the last few weeks, but there was a pang of uneasiness that came with not knowing where I was. This strange Shifter could be leading me to my death and I had no way to stop her now that we were so far from the safety of the La Push wolves.

Finally we came to a stop and I stepped awkwardly off the vehicle. It was always awkward trying to manoeuvre myself when I had a cast around half my leg. I'd never thought that it would be this cumbersome but it seemed that the plasters only use was to make me look even more human that I actually was.

A noise caught my attention and I spun around to meet the gaze of a scrawny Malaysian man. His short hair was ruffled and dirty; his large eyes were a bright hazel. He wore an old white suit that was littered with holes and stained by mud, if I hadn't known better I would have thought him homeless. But I did know better and I knew better because of how familiar he was.

He was the man that came around again and again to fight with my mother; the Shifter that hadn't been able to get it through his thick skull that Mum wasn't going to give him anything that she owned. Everything was starting to fall into place and put a face to the man that we'd always spoken of but never known. Mum had never once let him stay but he always came back and always at around this time every year. I could see my brother in the set of his eyes and shape of his brow. I saw myself in the wide flare of his flat nostrils. It was strange to think that I'd never noticed it before, in all the times that we'd seen him in leopard form; strange that I'd never put two and two together and got the answer I got now.

This was my 'useless' father.


	12. Nature Will Out

I had no idea what to say to him. It felt like I should yell at him, that I should make sure he knew the pain and anguish he'd caused my mother with every ill-timed visit. But then I thought of my mother and realised that I didn't really care about any of that now. My main concern was how he knew I was here and how he knew what I was telling the wolves.

He smiled at me as he walked out of the shadows and into the light of the river bank where we'd stopped. The idea that he thought this was a joyous moment made my muscles tense with anger. He had no right to look so happy when he had caused my mother so much grief. And again I realised that I didn't care about what he'd done to my Mum. But he had abandoned me and I couldn't forgive him for that.

The stranger sauntered up to him, her hips swinging in a way that made me feel quite queasy. She was using her body to flirt with him and he was lapping it up. I figured she was what he was smiling at but it still made me angry, with disgust. She rubbed her semi-naked body against his side and he grin widened as he watched her smooth curves.

This wasn't something that a daughter was supposed to see her father do. They were a couple of layers of clothes away from fucking in front of me and I could feel the bile rising in my throat. It was disturbing to see him ogling this Southern bred woman and it was beyond me why she was so keen to throw herself at him.

She could have anyone she wanted and she wanted _him_. With her curves and her flawless skin, there wasn't a man in the world that wouldn't give in to her sexual appeal. I wasn't gay but I had to admit that if I was to 'experiment' then she wouldn't be a bad test subject. Although, now that I've seen her put her tongue down my father's throat, she was quite unappealing to me.

"What do you want?" I demanded and effectively separated the two horny Shifters.

My father looked surprised at my outburst but he recovered from the shock quickly, "My name is Nakula Sieto, I'm your father." He had a strangely thick accent but I understood him perfectly.

I glared at him, "I know that, I'm not stupid. Why are you here?"

Nakula smiled at me and I so desperately wanted to punch him, "Your brother told me you were here. He told me the whole story and I figured I should help. You are my daughter after all." 'Pippa' was hanging off of him still, kissing any part of his bare skin that she could get her filthy mouth on.

"No. I'm not your daughter. You might be my father but I'm not your daughter. Why would you want to help me?"

Nakula watched me silently as the pretty woman continued to litter his slight body with affectionate kisses. He smiled before answering, "I don't have children so that they can be killed by a pack of mongrel dogs, and when I smelt those bloodsuckers, I knew that you needed my assistance."

I could have vomited at the insinuation that I needed this waste of space to help me with anything, "I need nothing from you. I have never needed you and I never will."

"Are you trying to tell me that you have the vampires under control?" Nakula was clearly unconvinced by my defiance but I wasn't fazed.

"I knew what I- I know what I'm doing."

Nakula watched me for a few moments and then shrugged, "Okay, I can leave if you want."

I turned to hobble back to La Push, leaving my so called father with his bitch girlfriend. I knew that I shouldn't have said anything but I couldn't help it. The words slipped out before I could even notice that I was saying them, "It's what you do best."

He heard me and he wasn't going to just let me get away with it. He may not have been around for me and Jesse but it seemed that he knew the basics of how to be a father. Like hearing things that your children don't want you to hear, "Hey, that's uncalled for. I came back to see your mother and to keep an eye on you and your brother."

"Because we needed you so much." I could not keep the condescension out of my voice, this man was stepping on my last nerve and I was glad for a release.

I could see the smirk that spread across his face as he decided what he was going to say, "It wasn't about you needing me. It was about being there when you left." He'd said it to upset me and I hated to admit it but he succeeded.

"What?"

He laughed, "Well, it's natural. When the mother gets rid of her daughters she becomes receptive again. Your brother will be out of there before the next ones are born and then it's back to the waiting game."

My stomach churned at the thought. I had lost my home because this man wanted to get laid. Worst than that was the thought that my mother had slept with this man, and that she'd done it more than once. I couldn't help but wonder if my mother acted the same way as this woman when she was around him.

I stuttered, "You... you _were_ the one responsible for Mum kicking me out?"

"She was going to kick you out regardless of whether I was there or not. I just helped to show her that you are old enough to fend for yourself. No child of mine is going to mooch off their mother for longer than necessary." He sounded pleased, like he enjoyed the pain that this knowledge caused me.

I tried to put on a brave face and fight him, but I knew I was failing before I even opened my mouth, "You're full of shit. Why would she only have to get rid of me?"

Again he laughed and the urge to punch him grew, "Because you're about to come of age and that would make you a threat to her title. Plus she doesn't want you near your brother when you do."

I knew what he was suggesting and it made me feel sick, "I wouldn't do _that_."

The thought of something like that being of concern to my mother made me feel even worse. How could she ever believe that I would be inclined towards sleeping with my brother? I loved him, but not like that. I'd sooner mother a child with a vampire than even touch that part of my brother. There was no way that Mum could ever believe I would do something that disgusting and unnatural.

"Kathleen won't risk it. We are more at the mercy of our primal instincts then the humans around us. And the desire to reproduce is one of our strongest." The sound of my mother's name leaving his mouth made me angry.

I wasn't sure if it was the name or the voice saying the name that made me the angriest but overall the result was the same. I was now so mad that my hands were shaking and it wouldn't be long before I was verging on phasing right where I stood. The cast on my leg would shatter but I didn't care. I'd come up with some lie to explain away losing the cast, I'd somehow made up a lie to cover everything else that had happened to me.

"Is that why you let that slut use you like a stripper pole?" This woman may have been helping me by claiming she was Pippa but I hated her. More than I had ever hated anyone else in my life. I was mad at my mother because I loved her and she abandoned me. I was mad at my brother because I trusted him and he had betrayed me. But this woman was nothing to me and I needed someone to shoulder all my rage at the hand I'd just been dealt, so she would be the one.

"You should watch your mouth; Maylin is the mother of six of your half-sisters and seven half-brothers. She's essentially your mother." Nakula snarled, I'd hit a sore spot there.

"She's no more my mother than you are my father. Thank-you for your help but I have no interest in it." There was nothing sincere in my words but I was so far beyond caring now that I kind of liked hearing the bitterness.

Nakula choked on a laugh, "You think you can handle all those wolves and vampires by yourself."

"I think that I'm comfortable and I don't need you or your whore's assistance."

I could hear a sweet feminine laugh hiding behind Nakula's loud barking laugh, "Well, you can't say that I didn't warn you."

It took all my strength to turn away from him and in my struggle to physically move away, I forgot to keep control of my mouth, again, "Oh, fuck off."

Something moved behind me, I heard it and saw the dancing shadows from the aggressive motion. As I turned around I came face to face with two leopards. One was the female that claimed to be Pippa, the other looked like me. Nakula was darker than Maylin and had rosettes like mine, large with a collection of small dots inside each one. Overall his fur was darker than mine but that was due to the excessive number of rosettes rather than the base colour of his fur. He was larger than me, a good four inches taller at the shoulders, and his head was broader and thicker than even my brother's. This only confirmed that I was right, he was the Shifter that came around yearly to see my mother. I cringed, he came around yearly to try to bed my mother.

Maylin and Nakula both hissed at me and I couldn't help but note that Maylin's teeth were shorter and fatter than Nakula's. It looked as though Nakula's canines were shorter than mine but it was hard to tell because one was severely chipped. The chip took the tip off his right canine and left a dangerous looking point on the inner edge of the tooth, it would stab through skin and muscle far easier than a normal tooth and I made a mental note to not let his mouth get too close to me.

We stared at one another for a while and I knew what they were doing. They were waiting for me to phase. Mum had always taught us that if we were to fight one another than we should both be in the same form. Of course, Mum had been talking about spats between me and Jesse but I figured that the expectation was the same. It certainly explained why they didn't just jump me anyway.

I shifted the crutches under my arms and turned away again. The last thing I needed was a fight with a pair of full grown Shifters, especially since chances were that Nakula was at least as old as my mother. I had never been good enough to best my mother and I didn't want to fall to this man-beast now.

The limp back to Sue's was long and exhausting. The muscles in my left leg were tingling with their solo effort, they wouldn't hurt because they were strong enough to endure it but they still wanted to protest. I wanted to walk normally, or as normally as I could with a hunk of plaster wrapped around my leg, but I knew it would look bad if any of the wolves or one of the vamps stumbled across me.

When I got back to Sue's the house was occupied. By Sue and Sam. They looked at me expectantly as I walked in but I didn't react to them. What was I supposed to do? Smile? I wasn't happy enough to even fake that. Cry? I wasn't quite that sad. Laugh? If I couldn't smile then there was little chance I would be able to laugh.

I hopped past the lounge and down to the room that I was currently claiming as my own. Thankfully, Sue and Sam seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk anymore, unlike Brady last week. But it didn't last long. Someone knocked on the door but like I did last time, I remained silent. And just like last time, the door opened and Brady waltzed in.

He closed the door behind himself before making his way to the bed. Sitting down beside me, he took my hand in his and smiled at me. I wanted to smile back but for the life of me I was too angry for such a pleasant expression.

My mind jumped back to the kiss that we'd shared and everything that was me turned to putty. I wanted him to kiss me again. It had been so nice to feel like someone felt the same for me, as I did for them. Even more than knowing that my feelings were reciprocated, it was nice to know that someone cared, that someone liked me.

It pissed me off that Sam had talked Brady out of doing it again. I knew he had because I'd heard Brady telling him what happened. They were going to 'reveal' the truth about Shifters to me in a week or two and I didn't like that either. How was I supposed to sound surprised about something that I already knew all about?

I was starting to think that lying really wasn't worth the time or the energy. Every lie I told made it harder to keep all the others in order and when people turned up claiming to be people that didn't actually exist... well, that really messed with my head.

There didn't seem to be any end in sight in terms of my lying. I didn't want to do it but I couldn't see the truth getting me very far. Over the last few nights I had dreamt of all the ways that they would react to the truth and none of them ended well for me. At the very least they would kick me out of their territory, at the worst they would feed me to the vampires. I didn't want either of those things happening.

Despite the fact that there was always a hint of wet dog to their scents, the wolves were nice. It was a strange feeling to have strangers care about me and it was like a drug to me. The more I got, the more I wanted and even after just a few short weeks I wasn't sure if I could handle losing it. I didn't ever want to be without these off smelling men.

Least of all, Brady.

In that moment I decided that I would not mention the Shifter thing. Chances were that they would bring it up sooner or later and I could worry about it then. I knew that I should have a better plan but I didn't want to over think everything. I was happy to let the wolves believe that I was the unfortunate human girlfriend of a violent feline Shifter.


	13. Boiling Point

I hated the thought of hurting Brady.

My dreams recently had focused solely on my deceit. And the dreams that hurt the most were the ones where I saw his face, when I saw him disappointed. It was gut wrenching to think about how much the truth would hurt Brady, but I was in too deep to stop now. I was past the point of no return, if I told the truth now or in five months or five years, it wouldn't change the reaction.

Brady was all I could think about and in my head, lying to him forever was better than hurting him for two minutes. Ever since he'd kissed me, he was the one that I wanted to be near. It was the glow of his smile that I wanted to bask in and no one else was good enough. On the days that I didn't see him, I didn't want to do anything. It was like falling into a deep pit of despair that only Brady could get me out of.

The feeling was so foreign and yet so right, that when Brady wasn't around I was in a state of constant confusion. When Brady was around I didn't care enough to think about it but when I was alone I realised how bizarre the whole thing was. I'd never been a girly girl, I'd never been the sort to be so smitten by someone but somehow Brady had me hooked. The barbed metal was lodged in my cheek and regardless of the pain I didn't want to be free of it. I didn't want to be free of him.

He hadn't kissed me again and I got an upsetting feeling that he wasn't going to, and he didn't want me to either. The first spare moment that we'd got together he expressed _his_ feelings about kissing me. He was afraid that I wasn't prepared to make the choices that he was asking me to make and _he_ thought that it would be best if we kept our relationship companionable.

I knew that it wasn't his decision, that he was being overruled by his pack Alpha. I knew that he was trying to help me but the truth was that I wanted nothing more than for Brady to touch me again. To feel his lips against mine, his muscular torso pressed to me as if we were supposed to be one person and not two.

The worst bit was that Brady was part of what I knew they called 'Benny-Sitting'. They used my brother's nickname for me because they were under the impression that I liked it more than Bennett or B. In all honesty I couldn't give a shit which name they used, as long as I knew that it was mine. Benny-Sitting was conducted mainly by Brady, Leah and on occasion, Jared. I was glad that I didn't have to worry about Paul because from what I'd heard from the others he was angry enough that I would lose my cool in front of him.

As it was, Brady had the day shift today and with every day we spent together, it got harder and harder to keep control of my emotions. All I wanted to do was reach out and touch him, force him to notice that I was here and I wanted him to give me a very specific sort of attention. But I couldn't shift the feeling that Brady really didn't want me to do that and so I spent the day sitting awkwardly in Brady's presence waiting for the shift change.

"So, have you given any more thought to Pippa being a werecat?" Brady asked out of nowhere.

I wondered why he was asking me, were they planning of telling me soon because I wanted more time to practice my surprised face. Maybe they were still trying to decide whether or not to tell me, maybe if I said that I'd given up on that train of thought then they would decide not to tell me 'the truth', as they kept referring to it.

One of the great things about them not knowing I was a Shifter was that they were more inclined to have discussions about what to do with me, close to Sue's. This meant that I was easily able to overhear most of their conversations, which gave me a heads up whenever they wanted to know something. There had been so much indecision about telling me about something I already knew that I was never sure whether they were going to go through with it or not. But I had made a plan not to worry about this until I needed to so I didn't have anything planned for this question.

I sighed, "Pippa and I are over so I haven't given her any thought at all."

In the corner of my eye I saw Brady smile at this and my annoyance with him grew. If he didn't want to kiss me than he shouldn't have any emotion, negative or positive, towards any part of my love life. It wasn't fair for him to push me away and then be happy that I had no one; in fact, it was plain cruel. I wanted to yell at him but I bit my tongue, yelling would likely make us both angry and if I phased then I was fucked.

Brady didn't seem to register my annoyance, "Well then, have you given the potential existence of werecats any more thought?"

There was no thought to give it. Werecats existed. I was living proof of that. It was quite annoying that I had to pretend that I was on the fence about this when I knew how it actually was and I knew that Brady knew. The only thing that I was concerned about in terms of werecats was why they were so determined to refer to me as a cat; I wasn't a cat, I was a leopard. I was certain that they wouldn't like it if I referred to them as a pack of terriers.

"No." I snapped, suddenly outraged by the fact that they refused to call me a leopard.

Brady seemed taken aback, "Are you okay, Bennett? I didn't offend you, did I?"

With every word that came from his mouth I found myself getting angrier and angrier. I wasn't entirely sure where this anger was coming from but I couldn't control it. What started as a spark in my stomach was being fanned into an inferno by the sound of Brady's voice. The spark had been there since I was a child, Mum had always said that it was the energy that we used to phase, but it had never turned into a blaze like this before.

This was not how things were supposed to work. I was not supposed to by lying to save myself. I was supposed to have found myself a territory and be working on claiming it as mine right now. Clouded Leopards were not highly social animals and the leopard in me was sick of all these people buzzing around and sticking their noses into my business. I wanted Brady and his merry band of overgrown puppies to leave me alone, to give me five minutes to think for myself.

Surely, five minutes was not too much to ask for. Five minutes to phase and get myself reconnected with the half of me that they didn't know existed. Five minutes to dull the spark and ease the tension that had been building.

It was easy to ignore when the lie was simple, a mysterious girlfriend who had hurt me. It wasn't so easy when I had to pick every word that I said without it sounding like I was picking my words. Now that they had a face for 'Pippa' and there were a pair of Shifters out there whose mere presence made me sick to my stomach, everything was so much more complicated.

Now that Sam had had his say, I had no release for the emotions building in my gut. When Brady had kissed me it had calmed the spark, dropped it back to an energy level that could be easily suppressed. Without that energy release, I had nothing to help me keep my cool and in a matter of moments Brady had incited rage within me.

"Offend me?! Are you fucking kidding me?" I snarled, "I don't believe in _werecats_. Humans changing into cats during a full moon, that's just ridiculous. What properties does a full moon have that no other type of moon does? It's the same fucking object it's just that its position has changed relative to the fucking sun."

Brady was quiet for a moment but he couldn't bite his tongue for long, "I've got a feeling that this isn't about the moon."

I stood up, hoping that some form of physical exertion would calm my mounting anger, "Of course it's fucking not. She wasn't a God damned cat! Do you really think I would be scared for a four pound feline? It was a Clouded Leopard! Four foot tall with teeth like sabres."

It was clear that Brady was confronted by my anger. He remained seated as he watched me and gestured for me to 'calm down', "Okay, settle down. She's a leopard."

For some reason this wasn't enough and I couldn't help but yell at him, "A _Clouded_ Leopard! Fuck! I don't expect you to understand but the difference is massively important."

I was still standing in front of him, my hands shaking with my anger and the fire in my stomach barely dented by my outburst. It seemed that yelling was not enough and I got the feeling that only phasing would appease the inferno. The knowledge that I couldn't phase without raising suspicions only seemed to make things worse and I got the urge to hit Brady for it.

Brady looked confused, "What happened yesterday?"

"That's none of your business!" I roared and I was sure that every Shifter within five miles would have heard me.

"I'm just trying to help." It was evident in his tone that Brady was still mystified by my sudden emotional u-turn. I didn't care if he didn't understand, he was going to wear my anger whether he wanted to or not.

"Well, stop it. I don't need help. I don't need anyone's help, least of all from you or your pack of mates." I barely remembered that I wasn't supposed to know about Brady's pack in time to add a qualifier.

Brady stood up slowly, trying not to come across as aggressive, "Bennett, please. You're acting strange."

"Acting strange?! Acting strange?! How would you know what is strange for me and what isn't?" I got up to leave, again abandoning my crutches and choosing to hop out of the room. I knew that I must have looked stupid, bouncing out of the room with harsh motions but I couldn't stay there. If I did then it would be bare minutes before I phased and tried to break Brady's neck.

My anger towards him was baffling. Not an hour ago I wanted him to touch me, to kiss me. Now, I wanted nothing more than to punch him or bite him, which ever was easiest for my form. In my head I saw rivers of red; I saw Brady cowering below my dark feline form, too scared to think to phase. The most disturbing bit was that the thoughts didn't upset me in the slightest.

"Bennett. Wait." Brady grabbed my arm to stop me from getting to my room.

He whirled me around and I stumbled, the cast on my leg made the simplest of things annoyingly complicated. Normally I wouldn't have needed the slightest assistance in keeping my balance but, because of the cast, I was only able to stay upright because Brady's hands steadied my shoulders. A moment after he'd turned me around he was pulling me towards his firm chest. I was engulfed with his warmth as his strong arms embraced me.

I tried to push away from him but I couldn't bring myself to put anything into it. I strained against his grip to make it known that I wasn't just giving in to him but after a few seconds of resistance I did just that. Giving in to Brady felt right and although I was still angry it somehow didn't matter when Brady was this close.

The warmth that radiated from Brady's glorious body was the most comforting thing that I'd felt in years. I think I was seven years old the last time my mother had given me such a reassuring hug but it was so long ago that I couldn't be sure if time had distorted my memory of it. The thought of my mother made the anger within me surge but Brady's presence fought against it and managed to keep it at bay.

Everything about him was wonderful. From the heat of his body to his well toned arms, it all seemed to exist to make his a marvellous hugger. I could hear the steady beat of his heart and feel it echo through the veins that ran closest to his skin. It was hypnotising. I could have stood there forever and been quite content in doing so.

I took a deep breath and felt the desire to gag almost impossible to suppress. When we were this close, despite how glorious everything else about him was, his smell was unbearably disgusting. I'd never had an issue with our next door neighbours' dogs and there had always been a kind of mutual respect between my family and the wild wolves around where we lived, so we never got close enough for the scent to be as strong as this. The smell was a bizarre mix of dirt and dampness. The musky canine scent seemed to permeate the air around Brady and suddenly everything attractive about him didn't seem to matter anymore.

As I started to struggle in his arms, he released his hold on my shoulders and I was able to pull away. Part of me didn't like the feel of his body moving away from mine, the warmth waned and the insecurities crept back as his arms let me go. The other part, a much larger part, was glad to be getting away from his stench; he'd never smelt this bad before.

Brady looked hurt and he sounded it too, "What did I do?"

The urge was to tell him that he stank to high hell but I couldn't physically say the words. He didn't look like his usual strong self and I couldn't bear to make him look or feel any worse. It didn't matter if the smell of him made my nose burn or that his scent alone had almost entirely diminished all the pleasant feelings I had towards him; I couldn't hurt him. It felt like I'd done enough damage for one day, I didn't need to make things worse by insulting the one person who truly seemed to give two shits about me.

I shook my head and turned to the bedroom, "Nothing." I mumbled as I disappeared behind the door.


	14. Situations Critical

Despite not talking to Brady again for the rest of the afternoon, he came back the next morning to complete his Benny-Sitting requirements. He wasn't doing it for me, he was doing it for Sam and for his pack, but it was still nice to see him.

I tried to keep some distance between us because I could still smell the stench of wet dog, stronger than ever before, and I didn't want to get too close. Fortunately, he'd gone back to being as handsome as ever, even if he smelt off. It confused me that my opinion of his attractiveness was so unpredictable, I'd always figured that people were either attractive or they weren't and that while it could change with time, it wasn't a wavering thing. As it turned out, if anyone could be indecisive about something as balanced as attractiveness then it was me and I did it well.

While we were sitting in the lounge room, silently watching some daytime soap opera, my comfort would jump from high to low and back again. The main deciding factor seemed to be whether or not I could smell the 'dog' in the room. Sue was home today and every time she opened the back door a breath of air would waft through and bath me in the scent that I so detested. And when this happened, I felt the spark of anger within my stomach swelling at the limits of its cage.

The cage was built by my own compassion for Brady, who couldn't help the fact that he was born the Shifter that he was. I think part of the cage was my desire to like Brady, to be with him; two things I couldn't do or be unless I controlled the anger. It was far from easy and I knew that it was only a temporary fix, but it was the only option I had.

I couldn't tell him what I was. He'd never want to see me again if I did that. He'd hate me for it, just as I knew that I was supposed to hate him for what he was. It was as basic as Jesse had said, the rivalry between cats and dogs. Only these cats and dogs were twice their normal size and had a human side to them that had a tendency to make things more complicated then they needed to be.

If it weren't for my human side then I would never have been able to consider the possibility of spending time around these men. The leopard in me would have been so disgusted by them and the vampires that staying would have been impossible. Or at least, staying without preying upon them would have been. I was starting to think that it was my time in human form that was making me fall so hard for Brady and I was scared by the idea that the next time I phased I would fall back to hating him.

And hate him I did, when I was in leopard form. I hated them all, detested them simply for what they were. I only put myself in this situation because I thought it would get me away from here and taking human form had well and truly fucked up my plans. These wolves should be long behind me and I should have set up somewhere nice and peaceful, but instead I was stuck in a form that made me uncomfortable and waiting for the time when I would be freed from its constricting grip.

It surprised me that Brady and the others hadn't picked up on anything yet. I'd been listening carefully to their conversations and monitoring what was being whispered when they thought I couldn't hear them. These moments were most common when Leah or Jared were watching me, as they were both Betas for their respective packs. But it occasionally happened when Brady was around, especially if they thought there was something crucial that he needed to know. I felt bad for eavesdropping but it was a necessary evil, as a lot of things seemed to be becoming these days.

They had realised that I smelt of Shifter, more specifically that I smelt like 'Pippa' but they were so blinded by the fact that I had broken my leg that they had bypassed the most obvious answer for one that barely worked. The theory was that my relationship with Pippa had meant that her scent was more ingrained then it would be on other people, they figured that a sexual relationship had changed my scent and that one day I would stop smelling like the Shifter that they so disliked. It was another thing that I had to thank my father and his whore for, because it seemed I now smelt even more of Shifter and they took this as a sign that I had been losing the scent of my lover until she came back.

'Dad' had also made an impact too. The Cullens and Leah's pack had retraced my track after I'd come back and they had found the male Shifter amongst the mingled scents and reported back as much. So everyone now thought that my withdrawal into myself was because Pippa had introduced me to her 'new' lover. I had yet to deny this, or to mention anything of the meeting really, so they were happy to stick to their erroneous conclusions.

I was one lucky son of a bitch to have everything continue to fall so perfectly into place.

The backdoor opened again and my stomach knotted at the smell that filled my lungs. It was worse than getting a whiff of one of my brother's horrendous farts, because unlike a fart the smell wasn't going to go away anytime soon. I couldn't hold back the spasm in my stomach and the retch that tore from my throat, Brady noticed it but didn't say anything.

Leah waltzed into the room, smiling brightly and humming to herself. She didn't normally look this happy but I didn't want to say something stupid and ruin her mood. Truth be told, I didn't say anything because I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I would vomit from the intense stench that was flowing towards me; she must have left the back door open.

The back door slammed shut, as if confirming my mental note and someone walked behind Leah without giving either Brady or myself a glance. He waved his hand towards the room and grunted what sounded like a hello. For a second I thought that it was Jesse, because that was how Jesse used to greet me when he eventually dragged himself home after a night with some random girl.

"Hey, Seth." Brady called as he stood up and looked at Leah, "I guess that you want some girl time with Bennett." It was the same stupid little dance that signalled the changing guard for Benny-Sitters. There was always some bizarre conversation that went far beyond what was necessary to explain away why someone was always here to watch over me. Yes, they jokingly called it Benny-Sitting to begin with but it seemed they thought I'd be offended if they were always Benny-Sitting me. Which I found stupid because who else would they Benny-Sit, surely only someone called Benny could be Benny-Sitted?

"Only if Benny wants too." Leah bubbled as I put my hands to my face and tried to rub the smell away from me, "Are you okay?"

"Fine." I grumbled as I rubbed harder, making sure to disguise my motions so that they wouldn't realise that there was a smell that I didn't like hanging around me. I rubbed so hard that I made my own skin hurt but it wasn't enough.

There was some movement amongst the Quileute Shifters, "Is Bennett okay?" I didn't know that voice but I guessed that it was Seth, because there was no one else in the house, as Sue was gardening out the back. It wasn't all that surprising that I didn't know the voice though. There were nine members of Sam's pack and at least five in Jacob's pack; I only really knew Brady, Jacob, Jared, Leah and Sam.

I continued to rub my face as I responded, "Head ache is all."

There was silence for a few minutes and then someone turned and walked away. The back door opened and then slammed shut again, and the stench was almost halved. Slowly and carefully, I pulled my hand away from my face and looked around the room. Brady was looking at me with deep concern etched on his handsome face, while Leah looked confused. She turned and sauntered from the room, returning moments later with a glass of water and a tablet.

"It's just Panadol, it'll help with the head ache." Leah said as she gestured for me to take the tablet and drink.

For reasons that I really didn't understand, the anger was back. It reared its ugly head and broke the feeble restraints I had on it. Leah was telling me what to do and I really didn't like it. I wasn't some child that needed her to mother me. It was beyond infuriating that she thought that she could or that I would listen to her. She didn't have the right.

A scowl twitched at my lips as I stared at the little white tablet in her hand. The muscles across my shoulders were tense, almost to the point where I thought they might snap from the pressure. I took a deep breath to try to calm my frayed nerves but it didn't work. It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. The anger that was burning in my stomach was not going to be satiated by changing how I breathed; unless of course, I held my breath until I passed out, but that would only postpone the issue.

I swatted her hand away and the pill flew across the room. The look on Leah's face was priceless. She was shocked by my outburst and had no idea what to do. I'd never lashed out at her before. It seemed that seeing her surprise helped to alleviate some of the anger but not a lot.

"I don't want your fucking drugs!" I snarled, there was no way that I could be any nicer than that.

Leah took a step back and looked down at me. I'd never seen her look so flustered, as she tried to figure out what she'd done to upset me. But, with every second that I had to see her confused look, I got angrier. I had no idea what they were doing to me, this morning I had been okay but now I was infuriated by people that I not two days ago I had liked.

I could only assume that it was their smell and the fact that I wasn't able to phase. Once I had found some way of getting out from under their prying eyes everything would be better. Just one phase and I would be released from anger's painful grip. It had to be the lack of phasing because when I'd first met them none of this was an issue.

Al though, I couldn't help but feel the problem was deeper than that. There was more at play then just the need to phase. The worst bit was that I didn't know what it was. It had been two weeks since I'd phased and I knew that phasing would help, but I'd gone this long without phasing before. There was a time when I was really young and Mum had punished me by making me stay in leopard form. I hadn't gotten angry then so there had to be something bigger happening that was making me angry now.

Leah knelt down in front of me, "Are you okay, Benny?"

Bile rose in my throat as the anger in my stomach mounted. Why was she ignoring my anger? Wasn't it clear that I didn't want her sympathy? Couldn't she tell that I just wanted to be alone? So much for women's intuition, I had a feeling that even Brady knew better than to keep prying when I was this mad. As it was, he was starting to back away from me.

"I'm fucking fine! The only way I could be better would be if you stopped asking me stupid questions!"

She recoiled at that. Finally, she was reacting the way I wanted her to. Maybe she'd get the hint and leave me alone soon. But I wasn't going to hold my breath. None of these mutts seemed to pick up on my emotions, or at least they didn't recognise the intensity of my emotions.

Brady was half way to the back door and he seemed to be inching closer to it with every second, "Maybe we should leave Bennett alone for a little while. You know, give her some space and time to herself."

Leah looked back over her shoulder, "Not until she tells me what's wrong. I'm not stupid, I know something is going on." Even though I couldn't see her face I could tell that she'd stumbled across something, something that made her snarl at Brady, "Did you do something?"

The offense was clear on Brady's face but he didn't say anything to defend himself. I wondered if he realised that saying nothing made it look like he had done something. It didn't help that he had one of the guiltiest expressions on his face that I'd ever seen. Maybe he had done something, maybe I knew it subconsciously but my conscience had yet to catch up with it.

It took a while but Brady eventually spoke up, "Of course not. I'm just reading between the lines and thinking that Bennett doesn't want us hovering around her all the damn time."

Leah turned back to me, "If he's done something you can tell me. You know that, right?"

My curiosity was pushed aside by the anger that I had momentarily forgotten about. It was back with a vengeance because all of a sudden I wanted to rip Leah's face off. I wanted to bite her. I wanted to hurt her just because I knew that I could. Sure, phasing would give away the big secret that I was trying to hide but at the moment keeping that secret didn't seem as important as venting my frustration.

"You know what I know? I know that you're a busy body bitch. I don't want or need your help with anything. What I want is for you to leave me the fuck alone." And with that, I pushed her.

She fell backwards. As she put her hands out behind her to stop her fall, she hit the coffee table with a thud and the wooden edge snapped under the heel of her hand. She was sitting awkwardly by in front of the couch with a palm full of splinters, staring at me with wide brown eyes. Still, the anger was not satiated and it took all my strength to look away from her and stop myself from lashing out again.

This was not good. If I didn't find a way to discharge the anger soon, I was going to do something that I couldn't talk my way out of.


End file.
